Ive also run into that kind of thing
@NH Civil War Gal It's like they think its some kind of a test or something? Like we are engaging their services as a clandestine operation? Or maybe the park service has sent us as a test - and we are going to "report" them if they aren't attentive enough or, if they are too attentive? Or, even worse, we have plotted and planned exact questions that we intend to use to trip them up? It doesn't help when you have a published author <thinking it will be funny?> tell you to be sure and ask about this incident or that, and so you do. And it winds up being a huge touchy-point with the person guiding.
Especially since you literally had no idea and just want to know what happened where.
Also, I've noticed that most guides/interpreters assume that its
my husband who is actually interested in the military minutia. He is interested on what I'd call a superficial level.....where was my 2x great grandfather's regiment? But they talk to him, rarely making eye contact with me, until I ask a question like - "I read about that battery in Falligant's memoirs- is that where his battery was? over there? And what regiments of Clingmans brigade were on the left that fell back?" And, "I read a letter from a guy in the 87th PA about this. How far up into Bloody Run did the 87th Pennsylvania get?" And then, yes, I'd say some interpret the questions with suspicion. And then Im disappointed, because it was an opportunity for me to engage in conversation with someone who knows way more than me, but Ive ruined it I guess, by asking for details.