- Joined
- Feb 23, 2013
- Location
- East Texas
Since the years 2011 - 15 mark the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War, they also mark the Semicentennial of 50 years since the Civil War Centennial 1961 - 65, arguably the "birth" of modern reenacting. As I've said here before reenacting is now old enough for those of us who have been involved in it a long time like myself to consider its own history.
One of the early though by now probably forgotten milestones of reenacting was Gettysburg, 1981, another in the series of annual events there begun and hosted by the SUV or Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. It was ostensibly to this event that a group of over thirty Confederate reenactors made a memorable march the week previous from Martinsburg, W. Va., to Gettysburg which I have described previously in an accompanying thread:
http://civilwartalk.com/threads/roads-to-gettysburg-summer-1981.101846/#post-910104
By the standards of massive events like those of the 125th or the 135th Gettysburg seen here:
http://civilwartalk.com/threads/with-the-u-o-battalion-at-125th-gettysburg-july-1988.115235/
http://civilwartalk.com/threads/with-the-frontier-battalion-at-gettysburg-135th-july-1998.100263/
the 1981 affair was hopelessly small and poorly-organized and presented; yet it provided a base upon which to build those greater which lay in the not-too-distant future. First, here's an assessment written the following year by the then-managing editor of the Camp Chase Gazette, Howard J. Popowski:
... In all probability, Gettysburg '81 was a once in a lifetime happening. The number of participants involved, in all, about the equivalent of a CW division, the ability to persevere in the face of all manner of adverse conditions--the least of which was being caught in the tail of a hurricane as we found out later--and still put forth the required effort to go on with the program, is in itself astonishing. and that program caught everyone involved with its startling reality. No one who was involved can deny that the Saturday action was anything less than real.
Still, we all managed to maintain a grasp of Twentieth Century reality as well. not a single injury that I have heard of. And the potential for injury was frightening. We, essentially, took realism to the brink and we all managed to walk along the edge without anyone losing the present day...
Last edited: