One of the consequences of this Federal shutdown will be to close the national parks. This will certainly be disappointing to all of the Civil War reenactors who have been working for months to get ready for the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War.
I sure that thousands of people with cap-and-ball muskets will not be upset that the venue for their planned activities will be closed on the day of the scheduled event. I mean, 150 or 151, what’s the difference?
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2 comments
I dunno, there’s something creepy about grown men (and women) dressing up like 150 years ago and going out to shoot at each other. Especially the Confederate ones, who might claim otherwise but are exalting the side that fought to defend the right to own other human beings as slaves (and I’m quoting the actual Confederate articles of secession and Constitution here, all of which said slavery was the reason for the secession, folks who say otherwise apparently never read the actual historical documents).
If they would *truly* live like 150 years ago — meaning, no hot water, vermin in the beard and in the itchy wool, wormy hardtack and stale water as their sustenance — perhaps I’d feel a bit less creeped out about it all. But that’s going a bit too far for most re-enactors (though there *are* some who take it to that level, which is either seriously weird, seriously heroic, seriously deranged, or all of the above 😉 ).
The Walton Guard, a local group, go all out. You definitely do not want to be downwind of them, especially during the summer. A lot of their clothes are handwoven, and some carve their own buttons. You definitely do not want to drink from their canteens, because they are lead soldered, like the originals. They even wear the undifferentiated shoes of the period. Few people know that left and right shoes is a relatively new concept. Most of the Guard do “cheat” with insoles, so there is arch support, but the shoes themselves are identical.
One of my local clients is an archæology company, and they did some research for the members. I have also done some intensive searches for particular information. There wasn’t enough activity in this area to even bother. All of Florida only had one “regiment”, and it served everywhere except Florida. When the local Confederates failed to take Fort Pickens that guards the pass at Pensacola, interest shifted elsewhere. They took the Naval Shipyard, but anything they built would have been sunk by the guns at the Fort if they had tried to enter the Gulf.