militaryhistory

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.

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