# Civil war reenactments in the US



## Kajjo

I wonder why civil war reenactment is popular in the United states. Is there any underlying political motivation or is it really just for fun? Why would someone reenact these somewhat "dark hours" of the country? And why do it in your quite rare sparetime?

I just do not understand the motivation behind reenactment. Is the side you choose related to your political views? Is it some glorification of "your side winning" if you decide for a special battle to reenact?

Kajjo


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## Angel.Aura

Yes, I'm curious about this subject, bravo Kajjo!

I always wondered why one should spend time and money just to play a role in something that, to our distant and detached eyes, seems like a strange carnival, a masquerade. 
Does it have anything to do with a special familiarity with possession and/or use of firearms? 
Or it's just deep interest for history of one's roots?

Is there something similar in other parts of the world?

In Italy we have nothing like war reenactments. Not that I'm aware of, anyway...


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## shoobydoowap

In a small little town next to my own, there's a Civil War battlefield which holds a reenactment every year. I've been a few times and I absolutely love it. I really do think, as Angel.Aura mentioned, that it's more than anything a deep interest in the history of our roots, and also a fascination with that time period. Not only is there a reenactment, but many, many people dress up in the clothing of that time.

In case you're curious, here's the website to the battlefield:

http://www.millsprings.net/


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## lablady

We not only have Civil War reenactments, but also Revolutionary War reeneactments, Renaissance Fairs complete with jousting knights, "Frontier Days" and "Wild West Days" where people dress and act like early settlers, and even reenactments of the journeys the early settlers made across the country (complete with covered wagons and hand pulled carts). Those just name a few.

Our town reenacts a mail run where the mail is transported between towns in an old wagon pulled by mules. About halfway between towns, a number of horsemen will attempt to "rob" the wagonmaster. After the "robbers" are chased away by the "good guys", everyone goes to the fairgrounds for a huge barbecue.

There is no political agenda that I know of, these are all just for fun. It combines a fascination with history and the fun of role-playing.

While I certainly can't speak for the entire country, I know there are quite a number of people who have an interest in history. Many of our historical sites and museums have thousands of visitors every year. Fairs, festivals and reenactments are just another way for people to enjoy themselves while maybe learning a little more about our past in the process.


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## ter_

lablady said:


> There is no political agenda that I know of, these are all just for fun. It combines a fascination with history and the fun of role-playing.


That's exactly what I was thinking. As far as I know, these historical battle reenactments are quite popular in the UK too (Battle of Hastings, Battle of Bosworth Field, etc). It's not something I personally would be interested in, but I can't see anything particularly unusual about it... there are much stranger hobbies out there. I think I can see why it mightn't be so popular in certain countries, though...


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## CrepiIlLupo

I concur with the other Americans.  Civil War reenactment is very popular in my neck of the woods.  I think it basically comes down to:

1.  An interest in the history of our country.

2.  An interest in the specific strategies used during major battles.

3.  Sometimes an interest in your geographic "roots" in regard to being from the South or from the North.

About two hours west of where I live is a town called Gettysburg where a decisive battle of the war took place.  This town has an entire museum dedicated to the event, and hosts reenactments year round.  While I am not personally involved with such activities, I can understand the reasoning behind other people's motivations.  First and foremost I simply believe it is a way for a history buff, especially a wartime history buff, to exercise his/her passion about something in which he/she has invested time studying.  

There are still some who would claim allegiance with one region or the other, in regard to family history, but I think these people are the exception and not the rule.  Our Civil War wounds have been largely healed as a nation in that regard, and I think that most people again do it largely for the love of wartime history and strategy.


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## motley

We do Revolutionary War reenactments also.

It's just a part of our history

Civil War stories are very interesting & so sad, brother against brother, very young boys going to war.   And in the end our country survived & became united, thanks to President Abraham Lincoln. 

One of my favorite movies is "Gone with the Wind", gives you some idea what it was all about. And Ken Burns did a TV series using letters  written by soldiers, generals, the president, diaries, paintings, very interesting, at least to me.


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## palomnik

While it's true that Americans do all sort of reenactments, and that it can be seen as just an interest in history, I do believe that the Civil War reenactments have a priority, and that the Civil War typifies a deep cultural preoccupation among Americans, in ways that are difficult to quantify.  It's no coincidence that probably the best known (although hardly the best) American novel is set in the Civil War, and several major films were set in the Civil War.  There are any number of new books every year on some aspect of it, and it seems that in practically every generation there is some historian who devotes most of his life to a retelling of the whole story, usually in several volumes.

Some periods of history just have a way of resonating with the people of a given country.  As to what Americans see in it, for openers I would suggest:

- Two groups who both claimed to represent the original principles that the USA was founded on engaging in a war which ultimately dealt with what direction the country was heading.

- The sheer amount of bloodletting that took place, which was unheard of in its time; to this day, more Americans died in the Civil War than any other war.

- The concept of "brother against brother", which always gets brought up,

- The way that the south was literally turned into a wasteland, a fact that southerners have still not forgotten.

Oddly enough, almost nobody in the USA nowadays focuses on the fact that the war was fought to end slavery, which in itself may say something about Americans too.


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## motley

palomnik said:


> Oddly enough, almost nobody in the USA nowadays focuses on the fact that the war was fought to end slavery, which in itself may say something about Americans too.



Not entirely true, it was to hold the union together. And the USA was hardly the inventor of slavery. Britain, France, Spain, Germany, China, Asia have all done their share, as slave owners or slave traders or both.


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## cuchuflete

> Oddly enough, almost nobody in the USA nowadays focuses on the fact that the war was fought to end slavery, which in itself may say something about Americans too.


 
Oddly enough, this oft-repeated bit of historical revisionism is blatantly false. Some of the Union states allowed and had slavery. The war certainly helped bring an end to the
vile practice, but was not fought with that motive. 

In this remote corner of the U.S. there are people who enjoy historical re-enactments, focusing on the pre-revolutionary period. The odd musket or canon makes noise, but
most of the work is to faithfully recreate costume and habits of the period.


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## motley

Anyone interested in Historical Reenactments can find them everywhere

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_reenactment


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## Forero

This far west, the oldest thing we can re-enact fairly accurately is the Civil War.  Here in the South, Civil War artifacts can still turn up in a field or in someone's attic.


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## Kajjo

Thanks for your contributions. So, in summary, you do not see any political motives and nothing particular about which side to enact, but pure joy in history and role-play. Right?

Might there be a relation between the US having almost _none history_ as compared to Europe? So the US citizens try to focus on the little history they have and somewhat over-compensate? In Europe the intensive care of US for US history is always seen with some sort of amazement (or a peculiarity), considering that there is little US history to start with.

Kajjo


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## EmilyD

In parts of the US, especially the northeast:  Civil War reenactments are *neither common nor popular.
*
I'm thinking of: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont (in alphabetical order).  My guess is New Hampshire could be included.  And I trust Cuchuflete's perspective when it comes to Maine.

Oh yes, and I'll add New Jersey and New York to that list.

_Nomi_


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## motley

Kajjo said:


> Thanks for your contributions. So, in summary, you do not see any political motives and nothing particular about which side to enact, but pure joy in history and role-play. Right?
> 
> Might there be a relation between the US having almost _none history_ as compared to Europe? So the US citizens try to focus on the little history they have and somewhat over-compensate? In Europe the intensive care of US for US history is always seen with some sort of amazement (or a peculiarity), considering that there is little US history to start with.
> 
> Kajjo



That is true, we are only 231 years old, what took you guys so long to find us? That is probably why  we have fewer reenactments than Europe. BTW we also have a  Renaissance  Reenactment.


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## Kajjo

motley said:


> That is true, we are only 231 years old, what took you guys so long to find us? That is probably why  we have fewer reenactments than Europe.


There are almost _none reenactments_ in Germany. I figure that reenactments play a much more important role in the US then in whole Europe, both in frequency as well as with regards to the amount of participants. Surely, there are some reenactments in European countries, but they are more a peculiarity rather than a "taken as normal".

Kajjo


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## motley

Kajjo said:


> There are almost _none reenactments_ in Germany. I figure that reenactments play a much more important role in the US then in whole Europe, both in frequency as well as with regards to the amount of participants. Surely, there are some reenactments in European countries, but they are more a peculiarity rather than a "taken as normal".
> 
> Kajjo



you might be interested in this

http://www.keltentruppe.de/english.html


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## Outsider

Kajjo said:


> Might there be a relation between the US having almost _none history_ as compared to Europe?


Many European states are younger than the U.S.


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## Kajjo

Outsider said:


> Many European states are younger than the U.S.


...in most cases just formally, most have a much longer history of being populated by roughly the same people and belonging to one or another country or sovereign. Sorry, I did not want to offend anyone. 

Kajjo


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## Fernando

In UK, there are many reenactments, mostly related with Napoleonic wars. In Spain there are currently a movement for those reenactments, mostly intended to attract tourism. I think the most well-known is the battle of Elviña (Corunna).

There are also traditional reenactments of Moors vs Christian fights, specially in Valencia (fiestas de moros y cristianos) but they do not pretend to be historically exact. The battles are mockery.


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## TimLA

> Thanks for your contributions. So, in summary, you do not see any political motives and nothing particular about which side to enact, but pure joy in history and role-play. Right?


Correct. Just like all of the other examples mentioned here.
And to add a few - religious festivals, ethnic festivals, Native American festivals, all of which celebrate something in particular.



> Might there be a relation between the US having almost _no history_ as compared to Europe?


My goodness...I spent so many years studying "no history" - what a waste!




> So the US citizens try to focus on the little history they have and somewhat over-compensate?


How nice...over-compensate...Hmmm...I think we do things "just right".



> In Europe the intensive care of US for US history is always seen with some sort of amazement
> (or a peculiarity), considering that there is little US history to start with.


Remarkable statement...some of us in the US are occasionally amazed at European history - even over the last few years.
It's good to see that European elitism is fast fading from the landscape.
You've opened my eyes...


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## Kajjo

Thanks again for all your contributions to my inquiry.

Kajjo


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## motley

EmilyD said:


> In parts of the US, especially the northeast:  Civil War reenactments are *neither common nor popular.
> *
> I'm thinking of: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont (in alphabetical order).  My guess is New Hampshire could be included.  And I trust Cuchuflete's perspective when it comes to Maine.
> 
> Oh yes, and I'll add New Jersey and New York to that list.
> 
> _Nomi_


EmilyD
Thought you might be interested in this, just happened to run across it

http://www.newenglandtravelplanner.com/go/ma/northshore/salem/sights/witch_stuff.html


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## cuchuflete

To spare people eyestrain, that link has a small, passing reference to a re-enactment:


> Reenactments               of a witch               trial,


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## TrentinaNE

But Salem does not have reenactments of the type being discussed here. They are depictions/presentations. The general public doesn't get to role-play. 

From the Witch Dungeon Museum web-site:


> Professional actresses in repertory reenact the electrifying scene.


 
It's a professional acting gig, not a re-enactment per se.  

Elisabetta


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## Alxmrphi

I also think it might have something to do with the fact that the US is so young, it has a relatively tiny history compared to most other places in the world, it means there is much more of a familiarity and a closeness with these events, wheras if we were to do the same over Europe, we'd be doing something every other day!


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## ireney

Well, I can't really answer the question but I did come to the conclusion, after following only some of the links provided in the wikipedia article about "Historical Reenactment", that the American reenactments are just the more known ones, and/or perhaps the most popular. 

As for the matter of long history, all I can say, coming from a country with a rather long one, that a longer history may give you more things (your ancestors did) you can feel proud of (by, I guess, association) but at the same time gives you more things to be ashamed of (in the same way). I think the only reason we don't engage in similar things is that it's not part of the Greek culture. Or, perhaps, they haven't caught on yet


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## Kajjo

ireney said:


> As for the matter of long history, all I can say, coming from a country with a rather long one, that a longer history may give you more things (your ancestors did) you can feel proud of [...] but at the same time gives you more things to be ashamed of [...].


Yes, I agree. Particularly from the German perspective the latter point appears to be quite relevant. 

Further however, the  longer history sets many single battles in a relation that let those individual events appear much smaller and rather insignificant compared to the very much larger picture of long-term history.

Let me add another point that came to mind when reading your comment about events to be ashamed of: Many European countries do not have a nice mental relationship to war and battle. While it appears that American are fond of the idea that many issues require and justify fighting for and being in war for (and winning  most of those wars, too, incidentally), many European countries are quite opposed nowadays to the idea of  war being a solution or at least an acceptable means to reach certain targets. Thus, almost no Germans would engage in games of war and battle, as wouldn't most other Europeans, maybe with the exception of the English. In the German culture we could probably be fascinated by knights tournaments, vinking ships and their way to live or ancient Germanic rites, but _far_ less by wars fought by the same knights or same vikings.



			
				Alex_Murphy said:
			
		

> wheras if we were to do the same over Europe, we'd be doing something every other day!


True.

Kajjo


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## cuchuflete

Kajjo said:


> Why would someone reenact these somewhat "dark hours" of the country? And why do it in your quite rare sparetime?
> 
> ... Is it some glorification of "your side winning" if you decide for a special battle to reenact?





Kajjo said:


> While it appears that American are fond of the idea that many issues require and justify fighting for and being in war for (and winning  most of those wars, too, incidentally), many European countries are quite opposed nowadays to the idea of  war being a solution or at least an acceptable means to reach certain targets.



Do we have a strong pre-conception parading as a question?


"...many European countries are quite opposed nowadays to the idea of  war being a solution..."
​Many, perhaps, but far from all.  Note some very recent Euopean wars: Former Yugoslavia, two Chechen wars since 1994, armed conflicts in Northern Ireland, civil war in Georgia in the 1990s, military invasion and partition of Cyprus, numerous ongoing armed conflicts in areas formerly part of the Soviet Union.

Participating countries in the Persian Gulf War of the 1990s included many European nations, including Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

"Nowadays" is a highly relative word.  In the very long expanse of European history, a decade may not count for much.


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## Kajjo

cuchuflete said:


> Do we have a strong pre-conception parading as a question?


No, not at all, Cuchuflete. Surely, I probably wondered about the popularity of war reenactments because of my cultural backgroud that would see such events as quite peculiarly. Still, the initial title question is just honest wondering and many of the points discussed here came up during the thread and just are ideas.



> Participating countries in the Persian Gulf War of the 1990s included many European nations, including Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom.


...which was at least in Germany highly controversial. Germany participated most likely because of political pressure rather than because of the people agreeing to it.

Don't you think that the general time-frame of history and the nation's different attitudes towards war might play an important role in how they feel about reenactments?

And particularly civil war reenactments? As a new idea maybe it reminds many citizens about "good old times" with all the role-playing and costumes? Even if these are battles?

Kajjo


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## emma42

Might the popularity of historical re-enactments in the UK (I'm talking about England as I am only aware of such events here) be something to do with the fact that our mainland hasn't actually been invaded since 1066?  We feel safe, protected by the sea from longlasting physical invasion at least.

I read in the Guardian recently of some people re-enacting the activities of the recently publicised "stand-by British resistance" (organised to resist in the event of invasion  during the Second World War).

Just a thought, and not completely thought through!


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## Sepia

It might interest you Americans, that wheras reenactments are almost unknown in Germany, gun clubs that specialize in black powder guns almost always have a dress code at their compettitions: You need the costume to go with the gun. So if you shoot with a replica of a Colt 1860 Army, at least a cowboy outfit, if not a cavalry uniform is appropriate, and if you shoot with a Kentucky, you have to wear something out of that era too. 

It is not the same, but it is similar - and it is even Germany usually celebrating American history here.


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