Should Civil War re-enactments be abandoned?

The Patriot-News ^ | July 7, 2013 | Donald Gilliland

[2ndDivisionVet]

Civil War commemorations and re-enactors are practically synonymous, but as the Gettysburg hoopla began last week, the Director of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College said very publicly the commemoration would be better without all the men in blue and gray pretending to be soldiers.

On June 29, the Wall Street Journal ran a story that said, "Peter Carmichael, a professor of history at Gettysburg College, calls re-enactments an 'unfortunate distraction' from a deeper understanding of the Civil War, including the motivations of those who fought and its legacy."

Later that same night, Carmichael quoted himself to me at the media reception in Gettysburg sponsored by the college: "unfortunate distraction."

Across town, in a field of canvas dog tents next to the Pennsylvania Monument, Tom Downes told me, "A lot of guys in this camp have probably done more research than a lot of academics - they just haven't written a book: they wanted to know what kind of cartridge box was used in 1862 in Virginia."

Downes, 63, has been re-enacting for 33 years. He's the founder of the 8th Ohio re-enactment group and leader of the National Regiment, one of the two re-enactment organizations the National Park Service asked to do Living History demonstrations on the battlefield during the July 1-3 commemoration.....

[3Fingas]

Here’s the link:

http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s03e14-the-red-badge-of-gayness

[tet68]

Bingo!

[JSteff]

My wife and her sister were at the one on the 4th at Gettysburg.
We pretty regularly tour the Battle field (a couple of times year).
We saw one other reenactment several years ago that was relatively good.

My wife and her sister said the one a few days ago was very poorly done. They said the crowds where terrible and the sound system was very inefficiently sited around the displays and tents. Parking and visitor/crowd management were terrible they said.

They were glad they went, but agreed with me they should have gone there on a non holiday day. They did say the battlefield is benefiting from the restore they have been working on. The trees, grass, and woodland debris has been restored to more like it was back in the days of the battle.

My wife said it gave whole new views from some of the sites than we had when we first viewed them over the previous we were there. PCN did a great job over the 5 or so days they covered it on TV. They both said they got almost more from that, then being there in the heat with the crowds and traffic.

I have to tell you I still get a tear or two very time when there.

[Salamander]

Just because I liked the subject, I took the same Civil War class 3 times in HS.

It was straight forward, factual stuff with no touchy-feely PC garbage mixed in.

I can’t figure out what crapaganda they’re teaching now.

It must be a nightmare.

Which pup?

Halla?

She died May 22 from complications of congenital hydrocephalus.

Out new pup, Seven [Desdinova’s Magna Of Illusion] is a little Euro Dobe pistol...:)

Hang for a pic.

[catfish1957]

calls re-enactments an 'unfortunate distraction'

I'd bet the Gettysburg Chamber of Commerce wouldn't agree with that. A pretty nice percentage of that areas tax base comes from reenactors.

[Salamander]

Seven’s page

http://dobermann-pinschers.com/seven.php

There’s a tribute video on Halla’s page.

[max americana]

More Schnapps! XD

[tdscpa]

The Ivory Tower Eggheads think they own the Civil War. Prove them wrong. Don’t buy their books.

[Mad Dawgg]

I've read over 30 books about the civil war but I got more REAL knowledge about the period by attending one very good reenactment in Northern Ohio.

I got to carry a typical union soldiers kit (Sans Uniform) and march and maneuver while sporting it. Some brilliant reenactor organized classes that let tourists participate in basic maneuvers and a simulated attack (no ammo no bayonets) so people could understand the logistics involved in getting a typical civil war soldier from point a to point b.

All of the equipment used was cheap replicas but fairly accurate in weight and size. The class was popular and sold out quickly.

After being involved in the class I had a greatly increased respect for soldiers who were in attacks like the Union Soldiers at Fredericksburg and the Southern Troops in Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg. No book could have conveyed the info I learned in that class better.

Further seeing a full scale reenactment with artillery and all the noise and smoke is startling AND shows how hard it was for commanders to see the battle and adjust strategies once the engagement was underway.

The author of this piece knows two things about reenactments. "Jack" and "Shit"...

[Jeff Winston]

Comments?

Not just no, but HELL no.

[Cincinatus]

The fundamental assumption of Carmichael (the academic) is that "professional" historians know the "real story" and re-enactors don't. In fact, after reading the output of academic historians for the last 30 years, I find that they are usually the least likely to fully understand motives and events, especially as most current members of the academy have a variety of leftist axes to grind.

Although I think a lot of re-enactors have unrealistic views of history, I do not think they are any more ill-informed than your typical academic. Carmichael is an elitist snob.

[tanuki]

Even if the professor’s criticisms were true, a division of re-enactors couldn’t do the damage to the memory of the sacred ground of Gettysburg that was done by one of his colleagues; namely, that Goodwin woman.

[Fresh Wind]

Using his logic, there should be no Christmas or Easter pageants or reenactments.

That would probably be fine with the vast majority of professors.

[sten]

motivations?

so they’ll discuss the north’s inability to compete against the south’s slave labor? (the labor standard across the world at the time)

[kearnyirish2]

“Downes, 63, has been re-enacting for 33 years.”

Civil War re-enactments will be abandoned due to demographics anyway. I like the fact that they give people a feel for the sounds and smells of real battles, but in the future it will be hard to pitch an assorted group of turbaned, blue-bellied Arabs as troops of the North fighting against pint-sized, beardless Mexicans dressed in gray as troops of the South.

Our history has become meaningless to the increasing number of people who’ve been in this country less than 20 years, and it will mean nothing to their children.

[skr]

Just call it Civil War Performance Art. Elitists give a whole lot of leeway to those two magic words. Art philosophy trumps fact in the ivory towers.

[LittleBillyInfidel]

Beautiful post, Ott! In 2002, I produced a film for one of the National Historic Battlefields about an event pertaining to the War of 1812. I hired an ‘academic’ to write the script, but was wise enough to run it by the commanders of the reenactors, to check for errors - of which they found many.

[LS]

This is part of a broader campaign to eliminate all things military from society and history. Reenactments remind people that there are things called wars, and things called battles. Think of Howard Zinn, who covers the Civil War without discussing a single battle.

[tanknetter]

Assuming the description to be true, we have the application of The Frankfurt School brought to the sacred battlegrounds of Gettysburg. The Marxists seek to control history, the way we study history, the conclusions we draw from history, and, ultimately, the way we think about the world

Nailed it.

When that thing about Doris Kearns Goodwin hit, I got into a BIG argument with a Liberal friend (yes, I have one or two) who's involved in national Dem politics over it. The points he made consisted of drawing an analogy between reenactors/battlefied study playing with green army men, saying that you can't divorce political history from military history and that it's necessary to connect history to events today (IOW Gettysburg is all about gay rights) in order to make them relevant. Pretty pathetic. He didn't like it very much when I told him he needed to get a real job that didn't involve using 1984 as a how-to manual ...

[0.E.O]

No. It’s a dry run before the country really splits into 2 in the near future.

Only two?