Forums » Smalltalk » AMA: American Civil War Reenacting

I rarely discuss my dorky hobby with people face to face, that said I am a simple forum post in an endless sea of them so I rather enjoy this!

Backgrounds on myself, I am now twenty-five years old, natural selection has yet to get me!, and live in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, for those who do not live in America that is the place with the chicken franchise and the race horses. I reenact as a U.S. Army medical specialist, however I regularly get drawn all over the place for a myriad of reasons so I can probably answer a lot of general questions. The youngin's love hearing my campfire stories so I got a collection of those also.

Pretty happy to be an open book for everyone on myself and my nerdy hobby, any questions you have feel free, ask me anything you'd like.

What sort of prep work goes into these reenactments, and where do you source your costumes and props so that you can be as accurate as possible?

What do you say to people who believe that such reenactments are culturally or racially insensitive?

Also, do a majority of the these reenactors pretend to die of diseases like dysentery, like during the actual Civil War?

The prep work largely depends on what you will be doing, I know for the guys who are hauling the big stuff that can be making sure the cannons are in good working order and not damaged or that the horses are in good health and comfortable. Preparation for any role you will be actively moving around on foot during "the fight" can be a beast in a different way, since all your gear is on you so you have to make sure you have cartridges, caps, that your rifle is in working order and safe to do so. The only medical officer I have seen out there put a lot of time and effort into hauling the hospital tent out and setting it up, was always fun to help Doc Withingham out before he retired the hospital. My prep work on the other hand is admittedly as lazy as it gets, I consider myself pretty nomadic, my vehicle is too small to fit much in it so generally I will sleep wherever my body falls for the night. Uniforms though? I put the maximum amount of effort in there, I might live like a Mongol on campaign but I'll look like a king while I do.

You have "mainstream sutlers" who sell generally cheaper goods typically made overseas, then you have "authentic sutlers" who generally are making their stuff in America and following old documents to make it "as nearly as possible" to the originals. Getting the audience excited can be difficult, the whole issue has become so politicized and everyone feels so dramatically different on it, I remember hearing something from Robin Williams about disarming an audience before you discuss something heavy and I follow that idea. This is all to prelude the fact that I have a fatigue uniform for any field duties which is just a basic domestic made uniform of moderate cost - I won't cry if I had to replace it, and then the most ornate set of blues mankind has ever seen for dress purposes. Parades and stuff people love it, full gold braid on the sleeves, so many medals I can play music on them, saber, regulation is to button your coat closed but I button the lapels back to show my nice scarlet vest. White gold embroidered gloves. A little girl called me a "Disney Prince" once, and was just so in awe, I'll gladly accept the laughter of my peers to see smiles like that lol Plus when people ask about the stupid medals, oh God do they get annoying with all the noise, I can tell them the various units or battles they represent instead of trying to find a hook the little brass bits do the work for me!

All that mush aside, I do not quite know if I am the fella to ask about authenticity, I try to do everything right, but I tend to have a habit of throwing it out the window when a better prospect presents itself. It has to have a good cause though, our telegraph officer at Brandenburg hung up a nylon lawn flag for the masons in front of his tent, I did pitch (ha, made a pun!) a fit about that cause it did not enrich the spectator experience.

Did I manage to cover everything? Apologies for not being at all concise.

That is actually a really good one, I may have to get a bit detailed with this one though, and I fear I may take awhile to answer it so let me cross that second one off and come back to the first one.

No, and I have made a point of it a time or two, to elaborate the authenticity part above this post, I will regularly have sixty-something guys who have more meat to them than a dairy cow yell at me over my antics and how "It misrepresents the war!" from their motorized scooters that my usual comeback is, "Die of dysentery out here and get back with me on authenticity.". That said, the Novel Coronavirus had made things much more authentic, Brandenburg this last season SUCKED, caught covid off a guy cause God forbid anyone listen to me on how to not spread disease in camp and, man, I felt like a lunger. So, bit of grim humor, but we do have a simulation of the TB outbreaks lol

As for the politics, it comes up more than I like it to, and honestly not even at the events? Rarely at the events rather, out there we all tease and poke fun at one another for the most part, but we have the same general goal even if I don't agree with theirs, we just don't want people to forget. Cause it sucks, baking your tail off in the heat, freezing it off in the cold, marching up the side of a friggin mountain, nearly falling off said mountain cause you drank too much with the priest, almost getting blown up, or ran down, or breaking a leg in a hole - that is all without being actually shot at, I feel for the poor saps that did more than play soldier, thank God they did too because half the freedom we have is from winning that war. Course that might grant more nobility to the Other Guys than they either deserve or I personally want to, but in camp so long as they aren't flaming buttholes I will let the greys have their "my great-great-great-grandpa"s.

Off the field though is where the issues arise, I find, the preacher man at the church my father and my grandfather built, my heritage, ironically enough reenacted himself ages ago too. He was a confederate, he however went so far as to regularly harass me - mind you I am the deacon - about being a "yankee", light ribbing never bothered me we do it in camp. In the sanctuary talking one night though he "enlightened" me how to spare the conversation short that God had meant for the Africans to be enslaved and the federal government acted against God and that He would smite all who upheld that. ... I think that is the only time I have wanted to be a violent man. I've had my own blood declare their desire to lynch me over my blues, but the preacher man's sentiment will be why I wear em til I die. To be polite, they'll bury me in em just so I can wait for him across the River Jordan with a stick in my hand assuming he can make it across the water his own self.

Deeper than I imagine you wanted, sorry, but I don't really have a lighter way to answer that one? It's terribly fun out there, but coming on back home seems like the hardest part some times.

I dabbled in reenactment about ten years ago when my then boyfriend and his dad were really into it. My extent of reenactment was to dress up as a tavern maid in a Revolutionary War era pre-declaration of independence tavern for a short film someone was making. My BF was originally from Mississippi so he and his dad were graycoats in their Civil War reenactment group. My interest waned when I went to university and after we broke up, but it was still a fun and interesting segment of my life.

When I saw you reenact a U.S. Army medical specialist, I pictured in my mind a guy with a bloody apron on, a whiskey bottle in one hand, a bone saw in the other, and a supply of lead bullets for the wounded to bite.

My question is in your food preparation. Do you go all out and only have on hand what a typical period Army unit would have and cook over an open fire with iron pans, etc? Or are you allowed some modern shortcuts?

While I do not have an apron there was a fellow I worked alongside at Brandenburg who did, which would have been fantastic too given the amount of what I can only politely call "yuck" that has gotten on my field uniform. The whiskey bottle part is absolutely true though, at the time they thought alcohol was a stimulant so the medical staff would get loaded before doing surgery, my best friend Father Murphy supplies me the booze, I get cold easily so its medicinal of course. Lead bullets is a fun one, the reason you find them with teeth marks these days is actually that lead smells sweet and foraging hogs will find them, chomp down thinking they got a truffle, and wander off pissed off after they bite into the thing and probably crack a tooth, lead even the soft kind used for bullets is hard enough to crack a human tooth easily. Chloroform was the anesthetic of choice and even when out of other supplies the surgeons could if nothing else count of that best I have ever seen record of, lacking it in great extremes the manuals detail ways to kill pain chemically.

Food is a funny one, I am what scientists call a mooch. My friends are in the Indiana Heavy Artillery so typically me and Father Murphy will eat with them, Munfordville one year the Wisconsin or Michigan, one of them high north states (North Dakota?) they came a long way just to sit in a mud hole either way, they made french toast in a cast iron skillet. Oh man was it delicious, they had made and frozen the stuff at home, thawed and cooked it in the pan, easily best meal I have had on campaign. Woke up to some french toast and german chocolate (hot chocolate). Typically what occurs is that the various units bring in raw ingredients from the local store and we cook what we have there. Stews and soups are pretty common due to ease of making, sometimes if you luck out someone shot or ran over a deer so there is meat on the spit - really rare though to have any kind of fresh meat. The older guys typically will go into town for food, seeing them at McD's is not too uncommon a sight if we are urban enough. Most events serve some kind of meal also, typically it is just a single sandwich and some chips, just enough to make you more hungry I argue lol


This pic sucks, but center you will see me eating some canteloupe and Father Murphy cutting up more as I am gnawing through it as quick as he can put it in the brandy. The set up we have going on in this photo is generally what our campsite looks like most the time.