A Civil War Encounter on Memorial Day, 2014
All photos and the films on this post by Bill Youngs
On Memorial Day Weekend, 2014, about 500 Civil War reenactors and their families -- all in period costume -- converged on Deep Creek, Washington, to relive the camp life and battle field encounters of 1864. They came from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana to travel across time by 150 years. The press kit for the event announced:
Feel the thunder and boom of the artillery. Strain under the weight of the rifles and packs the soldiers carried. Meet the fine ladies in their hoop-skirt dresses. Watch as battles are reenacted, walk through period-correct camps, and have fun with hands-on activities and demos for the whole family.
“We are here to help people appreciate hardships that everyday Americans endured during the Civil War, and to bring history from textbooks to life.” says Caleb Grove, a reenactor since 2009. “There is nothing better than seeing kids’ eyes light up when you dress them in the gear of a soldier, or watching as adults realize just how defining this brief period of history was for our nation.”
Men and women have been reenacting historical events for centuries. Tournaments during the Middle Ages recalled scenes from ancient Rome, Wild West shows in the early twentieth century reenacted frontier life. Groups in the United States today reenact the French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War, the Black Hawk War, World War II, as well as the Renaissance, Colonial life, and fur trappers.
I found the doings at Deep Creek, Washington, last weekend so engaging that I went twice. I was drawn in equally by the quiet domestic scenes and the loud battle reenactment. Two girls beside a brook seemed to have appeared magically from 1864:
I found the doings at Deep Creek, Washington, last weekend so engaging that I went twice. I was drawn in equally by the quiet domestic scenes and the loud battle reenactment. Two girls beside a brook seemed to have appeared magically from 1864:
And a young woman with a violin was working to preserve a sense of tranquility in the midst of an actual war.
Other women were cooking a tasty-looking chicken dinner in a dutch oven over charcoal:
In the open fields near the camp, soldiers were drilling. Cannoneers fired off practice rounds with a crash that thundered through the camp, and horsemen were showing off their mounts.
A few years back when Ken Burns brought to prominence hundreds of photos of Civil War soldiers, at least one commenter asked where all of those "great faces" had gone. The soldiers of yore made modern Americans look like an assembly of pigmies. On Memorial Day weekend the great faces were everywhere to be seen in Deep Creek. Here are a few:
As time grew near for the actual battle reenactment, several hundred spectators lined up on the "sidelines" and took in the spectacle. The battle commenced. Confederates and Yankees fired volleys at one another, without too many casualties. (What reenactor wants to spend months preparing for an encampment and then watch the battle while lying in the grass?!) Eventually two Federal calvary officers were felled, and their horse availed themselves of the opportunity to browse nonchalantly on the grass. Other horses road across and around the field of combat. I wondered: how had they been trained to pay so little attention to the gunfire?
The Yankees were driven from the field, but then their cannon fire took effect, mowing down a dozen or so Confederates, who were willing to play dead, now that the battle was almost over. Then in a moving tribute to Civil War soldiers, real and reenacted, a bugler sounded tap as men across the field came back to life. My three-year-old niece, fascinated by the spectacle, noted with interest and approval that the recumbent soldiers were "not dead." Only then, as the soldiers came back to life, and we applauded loud and long, did we return to the twenty-first century.
Here is what the battle looked like, complete with movement and sound...
The Yankees were driven from the field, but then their cannon fire took effect, mowing down a dozen or so Confederates, who were willing to play dead, now that the battle was almost over. Then in a moving tribute to Civil War soldiers, real and reenacted, a bugler sounded tap as men across the field came back to life. My three-year-old niece, fascinated by the spectacle, noted with interest and approval that the recumbent soldiers were "not dead." Only then, as the soldiers came back to life, and we applauded loud and long, did we return to the twenty-first century.
Here is what the battle looked like, complete with movement and sound...
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(You know you want to!)
Here are some other blog posts on the general subject of historical memory:
-- Connecting with World War II Correspondent Ernie Pyle in Dana, Indiana
-- "Over There": World War I Veterans Sing Songs of the Great War, 67 Years Later
-- "Oh Beautiful for Spacious Skies"-- Reflecting on a National Anthem
-- "Curse You, Patrick Henry" -- Memorizing the "Liberty or Death" Speech
(You know you want to!)
Here are some other blog posts on the general subject of historical memory:
-- Connecting with World War II Correspondent Ernie Pyle in Dana, Indiana
-- "Over There": World War I Veterans Sing Songs of the Great War, 67 Years Later
-- "Oh Beautiful for Spacious Skies"-- Reflecting on a National Anthem
-- "Curse You, Patrick Henry" -- Memorizing the "Liberty or Death" Speech
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