IN PROGRESS

 

Histories of Civil War reenacting commonly mention several milestones.  Among reenactors specifically, the beginning of the hobby can be traced back to the early 1900s, when veterans of the Civil War met to reenact battles for their friends and loved ones. Except this time, the battles ended in handshakes and not the spillage of blood.  "Among Civil War reenactors, the general belief is that the "first" reenactment was the 1903 recreation of the Battle of the Crater by Confederate veterans, followed by a faux Pickett's Charge at the 50th anniversary reunion at Gettysburg in 1913.  Having once been invented, reenacting was then revived by the North-South Skirmish Association in the 1950s, a development which led directly to the

first modem (but "farby") Centennial reenactments of the 1960s" (Jones, 45). 

 

In the 1980s there was an uptick in hobbyists that some say is due to the 120th commemorations of the Civil War.  Perhaps though, the newly-recruited hobbiysts were influenced by the “remasculization” of America that took place at that time and is detailed in Susan Jeffords’ and James William Gibson’s works.  At the same time that American men were hitting the paintball range, joining gun clubs and (re)constructing the Vietnam War in the American national consciousness, thousands of American men were also outfitting themselves with antiquated weaponry and becoming weekend warriors. 

 

Ken Burns brought the Civil War into mainstream American living rooms in 1990.  Tony Horowitz brought Civil War reenacting to the bookshelves in 1998.  Both men roused reenacting from the fringes of American society and into the popular imagination.  With the publication of Confederates in the Attic and the release(s) of The Civil War, history came alive in the 1990s and the reenacting hobby saw a new influx of new recruits anxious to experience history.   While the 1980s and 1990s saw a boon in hobbyists procuring gear from sutlers and showing up on weekends to far-flung “battlefields”, reenacting was an organized, and quite popular in some areas, pastime for tens of thousands of Americans.  Several authors posit that at least 40,000 reenactors were enjoying the hobby in the 1980s and 90s (see Jones, unnumbered page and Horowitz, 126).

 

Bucking the Ken Burns/Tony Horowitz creation myth of Civil War reenacting is Gordon L. Jones’ 2007 PhD dissertation, “Gut History”: Civil War Reenacting and the making of an American Past, in which the author details the history of reenacting from the first reenactments performed by Civil War veterans through the NSSA years and to the present (Jones). ..... He writes, “The only difference between this veteran ethos of an idealized past and the reenactor ethos which emulates it is that the authority of "knowing" the past---the mantle of authenticity---has been reclaimed from veterans by reenactors” (Jones, 67).

 

"But after a surge of popularity in the 1980s and 1990s, when Civil War reenactors became more professional about outfit specificity and military pins, thanks in part to movies like Gettysburg and Ken Burns' documentary, numbers have dropped over the last decade from their prior high in the 50,000 range. 'When we have real wars going on, a fake war is less appealing' says Horwitz" (Fastenberg).