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  • Best battle re-enactments?

    I'm curious as to the best battle re-enactment that you've seen or participated in.
    "So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand." Thucydides 1.20.3

  • #2
    Originally posted by Shek View Post
    I'm curious as to the best battle re-enactment that you've seen or participated in.
    135th Anniversary of Gettysburg. I flew back over from Germany to be in it with my Germans (the 7th Georgia Cavalry; 60 Bavarians and me). My son was only 12 at the time, but what a TROOPER! Hot as balls the whole time, couldn't drink all the water we needed, and we camped 'campaign-style' (no tents, no NOTHIN'), and the kid never missed s single step. Was the best company water-carrier on the field. (He'd almost disappear under the canteen straps, and he'd come back with knees buckling and grinning like a mule eating briars...and every man in the company would be topped off.)

    We fell in with a Tennessee (37th, Co H) outfit that really treated us like family. Everybody had a nickname, and our 1st Sergeant was the incredible Pipebomb, 21 years old, and a natural leader. Our colonel was a backwoods country feller that ran us like a Junker. A first-rate crew, on the field and in camp.

    But the reason it was so dam' great was the SIZE of the event. It was the biggest to-date, and it would've been tough just to get that many campers together, but to get 'em into the field and doing a serious re-enactment? Unbelievable effort. (I was also at 140th Antietam, but it was nowhere near as awesome; seemed like the event was designed as a money maker, and wasn't very fun, nor realistic, nor organized.)

    We did a full-scale 1:1, man-for-man Pickett's Charge on the last day as the grand finale, and it was TRULY GRAND. I could literally write a whole page on what it was like, but it would NEVER convey what it was like to participate. I had 'the moment' that re-enactors pursue, that is, the experience of feeling like you're really there, and it came as we were halfway across the field, heading for the hill that was completely blue, and shooting at us for all they were worth...and we marched on. I had a point when I was waiting for the rest of the company as it was trying to reform after passing a defile, and I looked up that hill and thought: 'If it looked ANYthing like this, by this point, every single Confederate soldier that was here would have known: this is totally hopeless. It is futile to keep going; we're all going to be killed, and we have no hope of winning this fight.

    But on they went.

    I have so many impressions from that experience, but writing them won't get it across. But you can take my word for it that it was INTENSE, and I'll never forget it.

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    • #3
      Bump.

      Anybody else?

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      • #4
        Blues,
        I know you told me the story on how you linked up with your German American Civil War re-enactment group and how you were a rock star in your town since you were a real flesh and blood Southern American, but would you mind refreshing my memory as I've forgotten it Also, I'm curious as to why your town chose a Confederate unit instead of a Yankee unit and what kind of displays you put on in Germany. Thanks.
        "So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand." Thucydides 1.20.3

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        • #5
          I took my kids to Gettysburg a couple of years ago,I have a distant relative that fought there,and I stood with my kids on Cemetary Hill and looked out across that huge field that Pickett's Charge came across....I felt a chill go down my back.I pointed across to where the Confederate forces had formed up and asked my kids what they noticed about the ground that those men had fought across.My son thought for a minute,looked up at me and said,"They didn't have anywhere to hide from the other side's bullets Dad...".Truer words were never spoken...we saw examples of minie balls that had hit in mid-air the lead was flying so thick.As you said Blues.....brave men indeed.
          "Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories." Thomas Jefferson

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          • #6
            Originally posted by Shek View Post
            Blues,
            I know you told me the story on how you linked up with your German American Civil War re-enactment group and how you were a rock star in your town since you were a real flesh and blood Southern American, but would you mind refreshing my memory as I've forgotten it Also, I'm curious as to why your town chose a Confederate unit instead of a Yankee unit and what kind of displays you put on in Germany. Thanks.
            Well, as far as European American Civil War re-enactors are concerned, having a REAL AUTHENTIC American, especially a TEXAN, in the unit is big juju, very powerful medicine. So, whenever we'd go to the events (described below), there would be a constant stream of personnel from other re-enactment outfits making up reasons to be in our company street, on a poorly-disguised errand to meet me. It was AWESOME.:)

            I'd have these guys from Germany, Czech Republic, Italy, France and everywhere asking my company commander, Captain Dusty, if they could meet me. Then we'd be up all night drinking, singing songs, talking, and they'd all try to introduce me to their sisters.:) (Oh, and here's a little tip from your Uncle Blues: do NOT/NOT accept an offer to drink with any men from any Eastern Bloc country; you WILL regret it.)

            It was really COOL: I could go to different corners of Germany, and meet up with somebody I knew. Once, me and some of my buddies from my REAL unit were cruising around Rosenheim, trying to find that weekend's beirfest (tell ya, fellas, Germany is the greatest place that isn't America I've ever been to). We were close but couldn't find it, so we stopped to ask for directions. We ran into a mounted policeman that happened to be in the 7th Georgia. ROBERT! KEES! (That's what they called me: 'ze Kees'.) After that, all the Americans thought I knew everybody in the whole country.

            Too many good times to tell you about. We used to have stammtisch twice a month, and they turned into little parties. There were different events we'd do, such as 'outpost camp', an absolutely EXCELLENT hike through Bavaria over a weekend. The rule was, if you can't carry it, you can't bring it. We'd take off Friday evening @ 1800, walk until sundown, and set up an outpost up in the Bavarian hills. The next day, up before dawn, 'patrol' all day through the Alps, stopping at farmhouses that were friends of Captain Dusty, where we'd be fed, and drink bier or eierlikor (homemade Bavarian eggnog). Bed down again that night, guard mount, then up again for the long road back home, where the women of the 7th would be waiting with a big dinner and warm fires. Awesome.

            'Winterlager' is cold-weather soldiering, and if you've ever been to Bavarian hills in January...it was no joke. Mostly camp life, but we'd do some light skirnishing if there were any Federal units that wanted to come out. Lots of 'living history' in that camp: pay call, mail call, unit store auctions, religious services with the battalion chaplain, drill, courts martial, etc.

            Living history would also be performed at a replica Western town in Germany called Pullman City. The soldiers wouldntermingle with Indians, cowboys, Old West characters, and other period players. Very fun.

            We'd also have a huge list of big 'socials', too: the barn dance and the Cavalry Ball were my favorites. But there was also the Weinachtsfeuer, or Cristmas party. One year, I managed to get it held at the Bad Aibling kaserne, where I was stationed, and my stock was never higher. You see, they held the US military in GREAT esteem, and to be admitted onto the station was MAJOR, man. (Some of our Germans, as weird as this is, were fanatical members of the Big Red One Association, and they loved the US Army with an intensity that is impossible to relate or explain. But the same 1st Infantry Division that had kicked their Opa's asses in two world wars was, to THEM, infinitely cool, and when I took a couple guys up to their HQ kaserne, I was a GOD.)

            Back on topic: the barn dance was a lot of fun, and it's a hoot to see what a Bavarian thinks antebellum Southern life was like. They held a GREAT party, and only the Cavalry Ball could match it. In that one, everybody wore their best militia uniforms, and the ladies wore period ball gowns. It was formal, and everybody acted like the high society that a pre-war militia company would be composed of. White gloves, sabers for the officers, proper decorum observed at all times. Candlelit dinner, period dances (if you were going to attend, you had to go to at least one dance practice, held after drill practice once a month), and some living history from real actors from Munich. We had a Mark Twain act once, then we had a play performed under the stars by lantern-light.

            But the re-enactments were the very best. Our biggest event every year was at Kuhlsheim, a Bundeswehr training base. They'd give us the keys for the weekend, we'd promise not to burn anything down (they had a full-scale village that we'd camp next to), and we'd fight our battles through the fields and over the hills until Sunday night. Too much to tell you about, but the details...I could go on for HOURS...until you got bored and walked away.

            Another incredible event was in the Czech Republic, at an old Soviet tank training center outside Marianske Lazhne (Marienbad, in Sudeten German). Again, I wish I had the ability to tell you how COOL it was and all the little stories from the three times I went. I'll leave it to this: the first time I went, the border crossing was something else. All my Germans were filling out forms and showing their paperwork, and swearing oaths to God, and basically being put through the wringer by the Czech border guards for the weapons we were bringing in. Single-shot, black-powder, muzzle-loaders, and you'd have thought it was the SS coming back again, like in '38. I showed my little blue American passport, and you'd have thought I was royalty. No forms, no bureactracy, no waiting...go right in, Mr. Bluesman, and enjoy your stay in the Czech Republic.:) After that, I never have felt so welcome ANYwhere. The Czech Army guys were falling all over themselves to be hospitable, and we had the best campsite, and never hauled water nor chopped wood the whole time we were there. If we'd stayed any longer, we would've forgotten how to tie our shoes and would've expected somebody to turn down our bedrolls for us at night. They may be poor, but they're PROUD, and they weren't going to let us have any room to criticize them; they were INCREDIBLE hosts.

            The battles were little affairs, ranging from 200-man skirmishes to the biggie at K-heim, with @ 2,500 in the field (which is respectable, even by American standards for the majority of re-enactments, but it was the premier event, once a year, and they couldn't even approach the behemoth events here in the 'States).

            I'm running on a bit, but there's so much to say. Too much to tell you about...

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            • #7
              did the re-enactors try their hand at southern accents, too?
              There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov

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              • #8
                Originally posted by astralis View Post
                did the re-enactors try their hand at southern accents, too?
                I'm sure hefeweizen induced drawls are just as effective ;)
                "So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand." Thucydides 1.20.3

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Shek View Post
                  I'm sure hefeweizen induced drawls are just as effective ;)
                  HAH! :)) Bayrisch was tough enough for even the GERMANS to understand.:)) Capt Bluesman and I went to Berlin for a weekend, and in the hotel bar, we were talking to a 'Prussian' (to a Bavarian, ALL other Germans, no matter where they're REALLY from, are verdammt Preusser, 'goddamned Prussians!" ), and he said when he would go on bike tours down there, but couldn't understand ANYthing the locals were saying!

                  So, 'American Southern' was WAY out of the question! (And when I'd do my Rebel Yell during the charge, I'd scare my OWN COMRADES half to death! They all thought i was the feircest fighting man they'd ever seen (helped along by an incident during a bier fest when they actually got to see me FIGHT...and I don't EVER fight!

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                  • #10
                    Last Christmas my family made something of a pilgrimage to Washington's Crossing to witness the re-enactment. It was a blessing to proceed from The Holy Communion of Christmas to this re-enactment which struck us all with its symbolism for a Republic once again in war time. It is a well attended and very satisfying piece of folk Americana to experience.

                    I must also recommend the re-enactment of the battle of Trenton, every 2nd of January.
                    "If we will not be governed by God then we will be ruled by tyrants" -William Penn

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