What Role do I Want to Play?

This is a very good question. It can be answered by what you want to do. Most people believe that reenacting is just a bunch of guys with uniforms and rifles playing at war. I can understand this first impression given that the guns are the loud smoking things on a battlefield. Men walking in ranks and firing in unison is an eye catching sight. Once you get past the glitz and glitter of men in full wool marching in 98 degree heat to fire blanks at each other you will see a large group of non-uniformed people.

Civilians: in my unit these people are in the majority. Camp wives, city civilians, photographers, ministers, and general town folk make up the civilians. These people will cheer passing troops, know what was eaten by common folk and how to prepare it, know stories of life at home during the war. Being a civilian is perfect if you don’t want to march everywhere or carry a rifle, or you find that the era was much more interesting on a whole. Civilians are an important part of the reenactment world to bring to life the whole of the period and educate the populous about this aspect of the mid to late 1800’s .

Musicians: Play a fife, drum, guitar, banjo, or almost any other form of instrument that can be traced back to the civil war or before? Then the musicians’ life may be for you. Civilians and Military had their own bands. Most reenactments have Balls in the evening and almost every battle has a band playing troops to the field and in some cases during the battle.

Medical Corps: This is almost always a military group. Surgeons, nurses, orderlies make up the medical corps. These people also move with the military onto the battlefield and will give “aid” to the wounded. They will educate the populous about Civil War medicine. Some will recreate a surgeons tent and explain the methods and tools used.

Military (finally): I left this to last because I wanted to make sure that people read the other choices that are out there before they went to the what is probably the main reason most people first become reenactors. There are also several different kinds of military you can join.

1)      Infantry: The back bone of the military. In the Civil war more than 3 million men combined north and south in the infantry. Marching, drilling, rifle practice, major engagements. This is the life of the infantrymen. It is also the group who can get closest to the action. The ones who will die at the feet of the enemy. This is the roll I chose to portray and truly enjoy it.

2)      Cavalry: Now I am out of by depth a little. During the Civil war the cavalry were the eyes and ears of any army on the march. They were the fast flanking movement and the delaying action. I do believe that to be in the cavalry you will need to provide your own horse. I will have conversations with members of the horse brigades as I meet them to find out. I do know that many of the northern cavalry had the first breach loading rifles during the war and were experts at dismounted actions.

3)      Artillery: The cannon on the field. These units unload their ordinance on approaching infantry, or weaken held positions before the infantry go in. It is an expensive part of the hobby as that each time a cannon fires the unit spends about $7. This can add up over a weekend of firing. They are loud, require much training but I do have a few friends who are in artillery units and they tell me that they would never do anything else. “It’s all about the Boom!”

4)      Navy: I must admit that I know nothing about the navy aspect. I do know that they are out there and that there very well may be a ship or two. That is about as much as I know.

What ever you chose to portray there is a spot for you. I chose infantry because of a couple of reasons. I enjoy the tension of fire and run. It seems that for a ll the time in preparation the battle tends to move very fast once it gets going. I also have a unit right here in my town. I was approached by my fiends about the artillery but they travel about an hour for meetings. I have about a ten minutes drive. This is a personal preference thing.

Next time I will talk about what you need to become a reenactor.

Till then I am your obedient, Pvt. Smith 21st GA Inf.

Why become a reenactor?

That is a question. I think that you may find several different answers. Among them would be an interest of the era, a fascination with military way of life, a fascination with the ways civilians lived, a love of history. I would think that you will find that every reenactor has elements of all of these. It would be foolish to dress and live the way they did 150 years ago without loving it in some way. The reenactor doesn’t just show up in costume and do things for the public. There are, as I understand it, three levels of reenactors.

Farbs: These people don’t try to be accurate in their reenactment. They have obviously machine made uniforms, they don’t spend a lot of time learning about the period or the people of the civil war. Picture the guy at Halloween who dresses like he was from the Civil War. The term “Farb” is used to describe something that is not period correct, Polyester and zippers for example.

The second level is probably the largest group. These are known as Mainstream: These are a combination between Farbs and Authentic campaigners. These people will look the part on the outside but may be wearing superman underwear. These people also in my experience will interact with the general public more accurately than the Farbs and more easily than the Authentic Campaigners.

The last group is obviously the Authentic Campaigners. These people live the 1860’s their dress is dead on accurate, their way of camping is dead on accurate, and their food is dead on accurate. It is the hardest form of reenacting because these people will lie down in the rain wrapped in a blanket and gum blanket and go to sleep. They are a great group and know more about the day to day life of a civil war soldier then anyone. 

Next I will talk about what role you may want to choose when reenacting.

Until then I am your servant, Pvt. Smith 21st GA Inf.

Why am I doing this then?

I am doing this blog because there are many websites out there for reenactors and they all have advice on how to start reenacting however, they all seem to be written by someone who has reenacted for a while. My first (and at this point in time, only) event was in September of 2010 in Angelica NY. I will say this if you are starting. I got this advice from the guy who brought me into the unit and I paraphrase here. Make your first small but established. If you can make it near where you live on the off chance that you hate it and want to go home. This makes perfect sense to me and pass this on to you as well. I am going to post what I buy and from where. I will give estimates on how much this will cost. I have found that there are many aspects to the hobby that i have never thought of. Someone needed to tell me, some of it I figured out myself, some of it I haven't run into yet. I will begin the list of things that I have found out later. Until then, I am your servant, Pvt. Smith 21st GA Inf.

Well isn't this new.

I have begun many blogs in my life. None of them have gone anywhere but then again I really never had a reason to have a blog. I have decided that I will try again as that I now have something to write about. in 1998 my brother and I went to Gettysburg National Park. I was 29 years old and my brother was 38. There on the battlefield was an artillery reenactment group. They were a New York unit of a number I do not remember. I do remember them being from New York because that is the state I am from. They went through the methods of firing a cannon and what the advantages were over the cannon from Napoleons age. I was absolutely enthralled with the idea of recreating this time period. I am an eighth grade history teacher now though at the time I was a movie theater manager. Now back in 1998 I had no idea how to get involved with something like reenacting and so this yearning to become a rebel or yank was placed on the back burner of my life as I attended to other things. About four years ago I was talking to a friend of mine who is also a teacher. During that conversation I told him the story of that artillery demonstration. He smiled and said that he belonged to a Union artillery reenactment unit. I was very excited about this and told him that I would love to be apart of this. He stated he would call when his unit was going to be in the area. I waited. Last year I was in a meeting and a member of my department told me that he was a member of the 21st Georgia Infantry Unit. I explained that becoming a reenactor was something I always wanted to try. He let me know that he would call when an event nearby was going to take place. I waited and then the phone rang. So last year in September of 2010 I was uniformed in borrowed cloths, out fitted with borrowed leathers, fired a borrowed 1853 3 band Enfield rifle, and slept in a borrowed tent. This was a great weekend and two weeks later I submitted an application to join this unit. The reason I am starting this blog is to discuss events I go to record the way in which I become a full fledge reenactor. This is my first post. I will add pictures of that event and others as I go to them. I also want to talk about the experience of joining this hobby. Being a teacher this is truly a challenge in time and money, more on that later. Until then, I am your servant, Pvt. Smith 21st GA Inf. Be Well