Impressions A New Decade of Reenacting!

Joined
May 12, 2018
A lot of things have happened in the last decade in reenacting and the world in general in the last year and the last decade. So my questions to you, CivilWarTalk:

1. What would you say are the most significant events in the last decade of reenacting?
2. What kind of changes would you like to see going forward in the hobby?
3. What kind of changes do you want to make in your own reenacting?
4. Are there any events you are looking forward to in the future (post-pandemic, obviously).

I can’t really speak to the first question as I haven’t been around long enough to comment. But I’d like to see more younger people involved in the hobby, and better prospects for training and advancement in units. I continue to work to build up my equipment, skills, and knowledge to improve my impression... and I look forward to seeing my battery again at Hale Farm and Zoar. I’m also looking to try and do some other events on my own, there are all sorts of interesting events out there I’d love to go to someday.
 
Well the most important thing to me is that my 14 year old son joined us as a drummer boy last year. And it looks like our unit also gained a 12 year old in Nov. . He drove out to Gettysburg from the Philly area with his parents to check out our remembrance day activities. They said they enjoyed themselves and he even came in uniform. Very nice parents also. So between these two young lads our average age dropped to 85 from 96 . :rofl:
 
Okay I'll take a jab at this with my personal answers:

1. Definitely the 150th events. Which sadly life forced me to miss ALL of them, excepting the local dog and pony show "enactments" where there was no battle....

2. I'd like to see the authentic community snobs learn a thing or two about not trash talking other reenactors, and learn to live and let live. Vast majority of those snobs in my book ain't nothing but "cool kids" and ain't the most knowledgeable. And I've become something of stitch counter myself....

3. Kind of already on it. Changes I'd like to see is first and foremost me lose weight, which seems to have been happening finally after years of trying. (Took a movie set working me 15 hours a day in the middle of nowhere with a cook who was, shall we say, not the best to be kind. Budget he was given didn't help....) Other changes, I've been deeply upset over the direction reenactments have taken in my area for a while because of politics and the inevitable changes to my unit time has wrought. Scenarios have become too repetitive, with no imagination, and politics took priority over having a good time.

That seems to be changing as I and others are on our way to forming a new unit. My hope is this can be the beginning of a new thing that will actively recruit new younger members, and by being prepared to walk away with our precious-to-event-runners infantry and artillery when politics rears its head in the form of senior reenactor officers who've gone way off the deep end and desperately need to return to the ranks. While it takes up the most space in this post, I'm not to wanting of changes as I've managed to set the wheels in motion already. I just got to keep at it and be patient. The pandemic has actually made pushing these things a LOT easier.

4. There's an event at the original Fort Beauregard in Louisiana I hope to go to in February, (pandemic or no pandemic). I was looking forward to our new direction for us as Arkansas as our main reenactment stomping grounds since I fell in love with the war in that State. But sadly I was informed last night it looks like the State Parks with the best events are expecting to never have another reenactment. Time will tell.

I've not been able to attend a single event in 2020 outside SCV functions with our Color Guard, (also the where the wheels of reform are already turning), and for the past four or five years life has kept me from doing any reenacting outside of the one, (used to be two) local East Texas ones. Whether there's a pandemic or not, (we'll gather the troops and camp in the woods for a weekend to keep it alive), 2021 is already shaping up to be a great reenacting year, and the prospect on the decade are bright as well.

Provided a real CW doesn't start lol!:help::D
 
I’m glad to hear things are going well for you and your unit. In spite of the pandemic canceling most events, I was able to have some good outings this year and expand my knowledge this year. Thanks to my Unit I’ve now drilled on all the positions on the cannons and got to fire the gun for another event! I’ve now fired both a 12 lb Feild Howitzer and a 12 lb Mountain Howitzer, which is cool. In fact, I also got a close look at Mountain Howitzers on both prairie and pack carriages!

Unfortunately we’ve lost two of our number this year, though neither to COVID to my knowledge. I hope we won’t have many more memorial services to go to.

The upsides of the pandemic has been that I spent a lot of time hiking around in the nearby Metropark in my uniform, which was pretty fun. I’ll probably keep doing that sort of thing in the future and get around to some other landmarks in my local area. We have some lovely cemeteries to visit and some historical places I’d like to go (there is a Starbucks in the building that was Cleveland’s Soldiers Aid Society, and you know I gotta go there at some point in costume!). I’ve also begun to dabble in sewing a bit, I’m working on making a lounge cap at the moment.

I’m interested in what people think the best of the 150th events were... I was just starting my Civil War oddessy back then, starting with a local events.
 
I’m interested in what people think the best of the 150th events were... I was just starting my Civil War oddessy back then, starting with a local events.

I can't speak too much on them as every time an event happened the week before hand something with work or family would keep me away. The 145th events were an absolute blast though.

I know a lot of the old timers retired and so on after the 150th. A lot of them and and the ones still around are a lot of the problem with numbers declining. Just like in organizations like the SCV they literally don't want new people in their units. Keep their familiar little club with no change and no desire to see it outlive them.

Something I and others are trying to remedy in our area.
 
1)The exodus of older reenactors had a profound effect on the hobby, as did the Great Recession. The one-two punch of losing a lot of well-equipped individuals with a lot of disposable income, and not being able to replace them at the same rate due to economic reasons was an important effect. Also, we are in the midst of a rethinking of the place of the Civil War in American history which continues to impact how we reenact.
2) I would like to see the Civil War side of the hobby recover the unscripted tactical. They were a part of many large events in the 90s and 00s that fell by the wayside. I would also like to see us wean ourselves off the traditional venue of public site and spectator battle. I would like to see a greater presence and contribution of people of color in the mainstream of reenacting.
3) Personally, I have a lot of camping skills that have fallen off a bit in the last few years. I´m a pretty good campfire cook on a fire about the size of a dinner plate, but I´ve gotten used to heating stuff up on the side of one of those bonfires with a grill that are ubiquitous in reenacting.
4) Looking forward to something of the caliber of Shenandoah 64 or the Slaughter Pen Farm events. They were well-run, well-scripted and sent me home very happy with the hobby.
 
I've been lucky despite the situation I've still been able to get some events in over the past year. We got most of our winter Florida events in before things got shut down. Got the Lady Farm event in at Gettysburg and got 2 events in in Florida in the fall that were on private property and just last month participated in a small living history in New Jersey on my way north for Christmas. Over the summer my northern group did some camp/drill weekends that were fun. So all in all still kept pretty active. Who knows what will happen this year. Most of our Florida winter events and Bentonville that I was really looking forward to have been cancelled although there's a couple that we're still hoping go on. Seems like all the public events are in limbo right now, don't see any summer schedules coming out yet. On the campaigner side I'm registered for Fort Blakeley, 1st Minnesota at Gettysburg, and Rosecran's Pursuit so I'm really hoping they will all go on as planned. Hopefully we'll have a good year and by summer things will be somewhat back to normal.
 
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