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A Medieval knight re-enactor has impaled himself with his lance during a performance and died. News outlets report 53-year-old Peter Barclay, of Virginia, was competing in an equestrian game in Williamstown, Kentucky, when he was wounded Saturday. Barclay's brother and the president of event holder Society for Creative Anachronism, John Fulton, says Barclay was trying to spear a paper plate on the ground. Fulton says in a Facebook post that the metal-tipped lance hit the ground and flipped, stabbing Barclay's chest. He says Barclay, who performed under the name "Master Terafan Greydragon," died while being flown to a hospital.

A (Republican) Senate candidate has been called a witch. A (Republican) gubernatorial candidate has been called a whore. And now... a — guess which party? — House candidate is tarred with Nazi."Why is This GOP House Candidate Dressed as a Nazi?" You may click to see Rich Iott — posing and smiling in 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking uniform with 3 of his closest Nazi friends... I mean... with 3 of his fellow WW2 reenacters.  "It's purely historical interest in World War II." Hmm. Yeah. The high-profile article — by Joshua Green in The Atlantic — goes on, stoking your...

Rich Iott, the Tea Party-supported GOP nominee for Congress in Ohio's 9th District, is part of a group that likes to don German Waffen SS uniforms and participate Nazi re-enactments, Atlantic journalist Josh Green revealed on Real Time with Bill Maher. The group, called Wiking, acts out exploits from the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking, an actual Nazi division, which fought on the Eastern Front during World War II . Iott, who confirms his involvement with the group, denies any belief in the principles of Nazism. "It's purely historical interest in World War II," he told the Atlantic. Iott can't...

A Confederate re-enactor has pleaded not guilty to reckless handling of a firearm in the accidental shooting of a Union re-enactor during the filming of a Civil War documentary in September. Joshua Owen Silva of Norfolk appeared in court Wednesday on the misdemeanor charge, which stemmed from the shooting of 72-year-old Thomas Lord Sr. of Suffolk. A June 24 trial date was set, but prosecutors say they hope to reach a plea agreement with Silva before that. Lord was struck in the right shoulder by a .45-caliber musket ball during the filming of the "Civil War Overland Campaign Web Series...

Klan holds rally at GettysburgGETTYSBURG, Pa. - About 30 Ku Klux Klan members proclaimed hatred for blacks, Jews, gays and Latinos as they stood behind barricades at the Civil War battlefield where Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. Gordon Young of the World Knights of the Ku Klux Klan also called Saturday for the U.S. to pull its troops out of Iraq and use them to patrol the Mexican border to stop illegal immigration. The World Knights obtained a permit in July for the two-hour demonstration. The National Park Service granted it under the group's First Amendment rights to free...

In another example of PC stupidity gone wild, a Civil War re-enactor portraying a Confederate officer was kicked out of Historic Crossroads Village Park, near Flint, Michigan this past weekend, for saying that a young black child would probably have been a slave in 1860's Georgia. Civil War re-enactor Tim VanRaemdonck said he was just staying in character when he wrote "slave" as the occupation of black children on fictitious enlistment papers during Civil War Days at Crossroads Village. Word reached Crossroads Village manager Garry Pringle, who had two conversations with VanRaemdonck and asked him to leave. Gosh! Imagine that!...

U.S. Army Spc. James Burnett, a military policeman, patrols with the Iraqi Police in Hawija, Iraq. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Cassandra Groce U.S. Army Spc. James Burnett Re-enactor Serves in Iraq By Spc. Cassandra Groce133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment HAWIJA, Iraq, April 25, 2006 — While most families pass on traditions like grandma’s famous recipe, some households participate in something more unique. Spc. James Burnett, a soldier in the 1st Brigade Combat Team’s Military Police Company, 101st Airborne Division, shares Civil War re-enactments with his family. “My mom got us into it, my little sister, me and my...

GETTYSBURG, Pa. - A weekend casting call for a proposed reality TV show based on the Civil War drew potential contestants hoping for the grand prize: $1 million in gold. Producer Kevin Dolan is shopping around "Sabers and Roses" and said he is hopeful of landing a network deal. Dolan owns the historic Landon House in Maryland, where real-life Confederate Gen. Jeb Stuart hosted his "Sabers and Roses" ball in 1862 before the battle of Antietam.Dolan would host the show in the guise of his alter ego, "Johnny Reb." Contestants would be divided into Yankee and Rebel teams; each contestant...

Author Barbara Smith of Washington, N.C. will sign her book, "Burning Rails As We Pleased," at the Civil War Living History Weekend scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 14, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, Feb. 15 (10 a.m. to 3 p.m.) at Roanoke Island Festival Park. She will be in The Museum Store Saturday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and return in the afternoon 1-4 p.m. The book is a compilation of letters her great-grandfather wrote to his family during the Civil War.Her late grandmother who had them in a box labeled "Mom's Stuff" passed on the letters to...

Albany -- A Confederate re-enactor troupe has participated in the Albany Holiday parade for the last dozen years, but this year, their application was thrown out. Organizers had to choose between the Confederate group and the Albany State band and chose the band, saying the Confederate group does not belong in a Christmas Parade. The re-enactors say it's pure racism.Members of the Second Confederate War Between the States re-enactment group show students at Twin Oaks Elementary school what a soldier's life was like in the 1860's. For the last 12 years about 20 members of the group have marched in...

Most people know the storied American Civil War as a conflict that pitted brother against brother and the Yankee North against the Confederate South. But too few people, says Civil War re-enactor Terry Middleton of Quispamsis, realize that it also pitted Canadians against Canadians."It wasn't just an American war," he says. "There were whole German units, Italians, you name it . . . We had thousands from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia who went down and fought, and they didn't always choose to fight on the same side."That fact of history will be underscored at 2 p.m. next Saturday, Oct....

<p>GETTYSBURG, Pa. -- There were no fire trucks on hand at the Battle of Gettysburg 140 years ago, so the grass fire that broke out yesterday afternoon during the 140th anniversary re-enactment was just going to have to wait.</p> <p>Organizers decided to let the fire, ignited by pyrotechnics in the lead-up to Pickett's Charge, burn for nearly an hour.</p>

GETTYSBURG, Pa. -- The Confederate and Union forces that clashed here 140 years ago were dust-covered and weary from a long, hot march. The trip will have been more comfortable for the soldiers arriving Friday morning. But once they reach the 1,200-acre site of this weekend's anniversary event they will go to great lengths to recreate 1863 conditions.Fifty dump truck loads of wood will fuel their cooking fires. Most will spend the night under period-authentic canvas tents. All will have to answer to men acting as generals George Gordon Meade and Robert E. Lee.An extremely wet spring forced organizers to...

Earl Salisbury, a 44-year-old Civil War re-enactor from Goldsboro, picked up one of the first copies of "Gods and Generals" released on DVD Tuesday and found himself on the cover. "Right, smack, dab in the center," Salisbury said. "I almost fell over dead. I'm the tall, skinny guy with stripes on his arm."He said he had obtained the schedule for the filming of "Gods and Generals." He and a fellow re-enactor, his 21-year-old son, William, started going to the film shoots calling for Confederate soldiers. From summer to December 2001, they camped or stayed in hotels in Staunton, Va.; Hagerstown,...

Taking part in historical re-enactments has become a fast-growing pastime. Although the battles are now make-believe, the competition at the higher levels of the hobby can be real, as re-enactment groups try to out-authentic their peers. That means more research, better reproduction gear -- and more modern dollars spent chasing the look of the past.The cost of being part of history can range from almost nothing to thousands of dollars. A good way to think of the events is to compare them to applying to colleges. Some time periods are more popular than others and their organizations are more demanding...