I Miss Reenacting

Note: I've been saving this post, waiting for a good time to publish. I've not had much time to work on the layout during the outbreak, since we're two working parents with two young school-aged children. This seems to be as good a time as ever.

I Miss Reenacting

Me and my father, not sure which event, but sometime in 1999.
Feels almost as long ago as the real Civil War.

About 155 years ago, I was a Civil War reenactor. At least that's how long ago it feels now looking back on it all. It was a natural fit for me. I loved World War II, as did many in my generation of grandchildren, and had been wanting to be a soldier much of my life. Then I saw the movie Gettysburg. Then we went to Gettysburg. The next summer we saw our first Civil War reenactments,  also at Gettysburg. I used the plural because there were two reenactments that summer, similar to how things have been lately, with the organizations competing against one another like children. And within weeks, we were suiting up for our first event at Museum Village in Monroe, NY.

The next five years it seemed everything was about the Civil War. I loved every minute of it, and it made the other difficulties in live just a bit more tolerable. At the same time this was going on in the mid-90s, I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease and my parents were having difficulties, at one point separating for a few months. But around when the photo above was taken, things had gotten much better. My Crohn's was more under control and my parents had settled many of their issues.

Soon, though, Civil War reenacting faded out. I can't really remember any events after 1999. I'd have to check photos. But if there were any in 2000, the memories of them have also faded. Possibly it was that none of us believed there would really be anything better than the 135th anniversary events like Antietam 1997 or Gettysburg 1998. Just as the real battle was deemed the Confederacy's High Water Mark, that 1998 Gettysburg reenactment was definitely the High Water Mark of the hobby. 30,000 soldiers. Nearly full-scale battles each day, including the only truly full-scale Pickett's Charge ever reenacted.

That's me in the circle. We built those breastworks
about an hour before the battle. 

In the official 135th Gettysburg video, you can see me for about 1.5 seconds during the battle for Culp's Hill. I highly recommend watching the full video to get a real sense of how mammoth that reenactment truly was...

We started by joining the 40th New York, Co. D and later Co. F--"Mozart Regiment," or "Constitution Guard." After a collapse of that unit for a number of reasons (mostly immaturity), we then moved to the 11th New Jersey, Co. H. Most of the old members from the Mozart Regiment with whom we wanted to continue reenacting helped build out the ranks. We found a niche as one of the few units to portray a Color Guard. At the 135th Gettysburg, we fielded a full 16-man Color Guard and were probably the only unit at the event to do so. In fact, I've never seen that anywhere else.

During our time with the 11th, our unit joined as an affiliate unit with 7th New Jersey, Co. A, part of the 2nd New Jersey Brigade, under the umbrella organization of the United States Volunteers (USV).

I miss it more than I have in a long time. For a good 10-15 years, I was so busy with college, starting a career, starting a family, that reenacting was just something we'd think about very little. There was no more money for that kind of hobby, and definitely no more time.

But now, I guess, that my boys are getting older and our family is maturing, I've been thinking about how much I'd love to get back into something like reenacting. The problem is that I'm concerned my memories of it are warping my view of what it'll be like if I returned. If nothing else, the political landscape today would make it almost unbearable sitting around a campfire for hours on end with those guys, even the Union reenactors.

Still, it'd be interesting to give it a shot, even if not right away. It would be wonderful if I could get to an event before my dad is too old to participate, and have my own boys there with us. But that would be another five years at least before they're both old enough.

So for now, I'll just have to enjoy the memories of what was a great period of my life, and--little did I know it at the time--closest I'd ever get to joining the army.