militaryhistory

The American people in 1860 believed that they were the happiest and luckiest people in all the world, and in a way they were right. Most of them lived on farms or in very small towns, they lived better than their fathers had lived, and they knew that thei children would do better still. The landscape was predominantly rural, with unending sany roads winding leisurely accross a country, which was both drowsy with enjoyment of the present and vibrant with eagerness to get into the future.

-Bruce Catton “The Civil War”

It is difficult to explain the civil war reenacting experience without talking about the war itself. The story would be incomplete without explaining the conflict in some detail. It gives substance to an extreme reaction to a failed national dialouge that eventually became the civil war, a dialouge that continues to this very day. The late historian Shelby Foote said that the civil war made us an “is”. This could’nt be more true, as before the war the United States was a collection decentralized states that were more or less under the control of a weak federal government.

Whereas this model of government may seem somewhat alien to us now, it was in fact the model that the founders of the nation intended. The early American government had fought the revolution to thwart just that. They had been controlled by a monarchy and had suffered under the yoke of opression from this strong form governing.

In 1803, the Corps of Discovery lead by Lewis and Clark had revealed that large tracts of land existed to the west, and the federal government was more than ambitious to exploit the land by any means. The only ways to do this were by treaty with the peole who already lived there, (which were the multitude of native american tribes), warfare when treaties failed and the highly encouraged settlement of the west by white settlers.

By the mid 1830’s the viabilty of just such a proram had become fully recognized. Despite the small size of the US Military during this time period (approximately 6000 +). The army had become both ambassador and enforcer in the west. They had forged treaties, relocated a majority of native americans west of the Mississippi River and used military force where necessary to enforce policy.

By the 1850’s the war with Mexico had opened up huge tracts of land in the southwest and both the government and settlers were in a race to settle the land. But the institution of slavery had poisoned the water of the new dream. The constitution had been forged with slavery under the table like a coiled rattlesnake waiting to strike.

Many alternatives were put fourth to settle the slavery issue, including the Missouri compromise, the Wilmot provisio and the idea of popular soveriegnty which would have given each state the authority to decide for itself as to permit slavery within the boundries of its juristiction.

There were however forces at work that were in opposition to the political compromises. A slave by the name of Dred Scott had been kept a slave by his owner and taken into the northern territory, when he sued fo his freedom, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Roger Tawney ruled that no black man had any rights that a white man was bound to respect. Then came the fugitive slave act which made it a law that any fugitive slaves found in the north were to be returned to their southern owners, this act gave birth to the underground railroad, a system of safe houses that assisted slaves in crossing the Canadian border to freedom.  Following this, the author Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the book “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” which shed light on the system of slavery. Her book sold 100,000 copies in the first year of production.

THE ABOLITIONISTS MOVEMENT

Then came “John Brown”, the meteor of the abolitionist movement. The “Abolitonist movement” in America, could for all purposes be considered a special interest group from a moder perspective. The movement had many prominent names who supported is ideas, including Frederick Douglas, a black one time slave, who won his freedom and became a highly educated individual. William Lloyd Garrison who wrote the newspaper “The Liberator” and called for immediate emancipation, (also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abolitionism ), but Brown set the tone for the bloodshed that was to follow in the next few years that would be the civil war period.

BLEEDING KANSAS

Kansas had become a powder keg of activity after the Kansas-Nebraska act implemented the idea of Popular Sovereignty, which gave the idea both fire and steal. Pro-slavery people were determined to see Kansas become a slave state and anti-slavery proponents were equally determined to see slavery abolished in the newly formed state. Subsequently the act also opened e door for the extremist and silenced the voice of the moderate. The abolitionist John Brown had lead a small contingent of raider to a place called Pottawanamie Creek Kansas, where he and his followers hacked several pro slavery peopl to death with broad swords.  Lawrence Kansas was later sacked and burned to the ground by border ruffians who invaded the state from Missouri. The union as they knew it was now falling apart.

Introduction By the Author;

For many children, thier minds are filled with family, play, new toys and baseball. I guess I had some of the same thoughts, but other things were in my head. Within my own thoughts were war. In the sense that I always heard the sounds of battle and flashed to battlefields filled with gun fire, explosions, the cries of the wounded and the deafening silence of the dead. My father was in the Navy during world war two, and I grew up on a diet of old war stories and a constant stream of world war two propaganda films that were a mainstay on the local Chicago TV stations, particulalry WGN late night TV. I fell in love with American history during the 200th aniversary of our nation and my father had help to pay my way to visit Washington DC with my eigth grade class, a trip that ignited my interest in history.

During the 1970’s and 1980’s, I served in both the Navy and the Illinois National Guard. These experiences furthered my interest in history. But it was’nt until the 1990’s that I found my way into Civil War Reenacting. I first ran into a civil group during a 4th of July celebration. The unit was Battery G, an artillery unit located in the northern Illinois area. The impression they made was unrivaled, as I sat down muzzle from their artillery piece, a full scale nepolean as they fired rounds. I could feel the heat of the gun and the crash of the gun as it discharged. It had a lasting effect on me that I can still feel today.

THE GROVE

After my cannon experience, I started looking around and investigating the various civil war groups in the Chicago area. I met with a couple of groups and ran into Confederate Group that were based in notrhern Illinois called the 2nd North Carolina Dismounted Cavalry. I had some initial reservations about reenacting a Confederate soldier, due to the moral implications of slavery, which in reality, I knew very little about at this point in my life. That however would change as I became emersed in the reenacting sub- culture.My first reenacting experience was at a place called the Grove, in Glenview illinois which is essentially a an outdoor museum.

I was very nervouse, and felt a great amount of anxiety as I walked into camp for the first time. I recall the smell of canvas, campfires and felt the heat of the summer sun beating down on me. I met with my new found unit and was introduced to this new group of people. I had already bought my first musket, which was a two band Zouave musket, it was’nt exactly a historically correct weapon but it passed muster for this day. I borrowed period clothing from another member of the unit, and also had purchsed a pistol, a colt Navy pistol.

SOMETHING DEEP INSIDE

As we formed ranks to march to the battlefield, I began t raelize that this was indeed very familiar territory for me. As we approached the field there was an ld one room period school house occupied by a small contingent of federal troops in navy blue uniforms. The men in our ranks were anything but unifomed, they wore gray wool jackets, butter nut colored tunics a variety of different colored pants and many different styles of hats.

As we formed to cross the field, an officer drew his sword and ordered us to take the building and remove the federals. We opened fire, a dn the smoke of black power hung heavy in the area. There were yells and the sound of gun fire, and ignited something deep inside of me. This ground, this action felt very familiar and swelled up in me. It as a feeling that would grip me far beyond anything that I had ever known. I’ve heard of past life memory, and I tend to not adhere to such things. But at this point I had to believe that I had experienced something very powerful. It was an experience that would last for ten years. It would cause me to visit distant corners of the nation and walk the trails and fields that were walked by the soldiers of the civil war, and in some cases, I believe they still do.  It became more than a hobby to me, it was a way of life that would permeate every segment of my life. It would dictate how I looked at life, how I felt about my surroundings and how I dealt with lifes problems.

Ironically much like those who lived through the civil war my experience would end in personal tradgedy. It would launch me into many years of depression, doubt and self hatred as I struggled to make sense of what I had gone through.