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Should Civil War re-enactments be abandoned?
The Patriot-News ^ | July 7, 2013 | Donald Gilliland

Posted on 07/10/2013 11:09:26 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Civil War commemorations and re-enactors are practically synonymous, but as the Gettysburg hoopla began last week, the Director of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College said very publicly the commemoration would be better without all the men in blue and gray pretending to be soldiers.

On June 29, the Wall Street Journal ran a story that said, "Peter Carmichael, a professor of history at Gettysburg College, calls re-enactments an 'unfortunate distraction' from a deeper understanding of the Civil War, including the motivations of those who fought and its legacy."

Later that same night, Carmichael quoted himself to me at the media reception in Gettysburg sponsored by the college: "unfortunate distraction."

Across town, in a field of canvas dog tents next to the Pennsylvania Monument, Tom Downes told me, "A lot of guys in this camp have probably done more research than a lot of academics - they just haven't written a book: they wanted to know what kind of cartridge box was used in 1862 in Virginia."

Downes, 63, has been re-enacting for 33 years. He's the founder of the 8th Ohio re-enactment group and leader of the National Regiment, one of the two re-enactment organizations the National Park Service asked to do Living History demonstrations on the battlefield during the July 1-3 commemoration.....

(Excerpt) Read more at blog.pennlive.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: civilwar; gettysburg; godsgravesglyphs; history; reenactors
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“Peter Carmichael, a professor of history at Gettysburg College, calls re-enactments an ‘unfortunate distraction’ from a deeper understanding of the Civil War, including the motivations of those who fought and its legacy.”

Oh, p-— off egghead.
Talking ain’t the same as experiencing.


41 posted on 07/11/2013 3:57:43 AM PDT by servo1969
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I’ll bet Peter Carmichael never fried up some side meat in a canteen half on a rainy day.


42 posted on 07/11/2013 4:04:59 AM PDT by PeteB570 ( Islam is the sea in which the Terrorist Shark swims. The deeper the sea the larger the shark.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I like going to any reenactment stuff. Sometimes learn things, see equipment and other gear, and more time to play with the cameras.

One CW artillery crowd I talked to a year or so back said it was getting to expensive to fire the cannon.


43 posted on 07/11/2013 4:05:57 AM PDT by wally_bert (There are no winners in a game of losers. I'm Tommy Joyce, welcome to the Oriental Lounge.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Academia feels the heat of amateur competition.


44 posted on 07/11/2013 4:09:03 AM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... Who will shoot Liberty Valence?)
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To: Mad Dawgg

I’ve been to a few re-enactments and they’re pretty amazing. Even though the guys are typically older and fatter than a typical soldier of the time, watching them walk across an open field with cannons and guns firing really gives you a feeling about the battle, rather than simply reading “Lee did this and then Meade did that...”


45 posted on 07/11/2013 4:09:36 AM PDT by perez24 (Dirty deeds, done dirt cheap.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

These days there’s always one party pooper.

And it’s usually some egghead with a “cause.”


46 posted on 07/11/2013 4:31:25 AM PDT by Jack Hammer (American)
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To: nathanbedford

“Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

- George Santayana


47 posted on 07/11/2013 4:39:38 AM PDT by Dr.Deth
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Of course they should continue.....the South needs the practice.


48 posted on 07/11/2013 4:42:37 AM PDT by S.O.S121.500 (Any law repugnant to the Constitutuon is null and void.....ENFORCE THE BILL OF RIGHTS! It's the Law.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Try banning it and see. They do not know passion until they meet these Civil War buffs.

LLS


49 posted on 07/11/2013 4:42:47 AM PDT by LibLieSlayer (FROM MY COLD, DEAD HANDS!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Professor Carmichael’s profession has been completely hijacked by those who view history as a tool to advance their political agenda. True historians are very rare indeed these days. He sounds like someone who does not want anyone to present a view that might be contrary to the current meme of the academy. They are a very intolerant bunch.


50 posted on 07/11/2013 5:06:03 AM PDT by centurion316
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To: tanknetter

“He didn’t like it very much when I told him he needed to get a real job that didn’t involve using 1984 as a how-to manual ... “

That’s rich! If “1984” wasn’t his notion of an ideal society, he would have just laughed it off. Bet these lefties wouldn’t mind a reenactment of the fall of Saigon or reeducation camps or the Cambodian genocide.

There’s going to be a Civil War reenactment before too long, only it will be fought with AR-15s instead of muskets.


51 posted on 07/11/2013 5:09:17 AM PDT by elcid1970 ("The Second Amendment is more important than Islam.")
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To: max americana

maybe later they can do revolutionary war II reenactments.


52 posted on 07/11/2013 5:41:33 AM PDT by Bulwyf
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To: max americana

lol that’s what happened in 1812, when they came out of Canada, they stopped the advance when they ran out of alcohol heh.


53 posted on 07/11/2013 5:42:27 AM PDT by Bulwyf
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To: tet68

Winner!


54 posted on 07/11/2013 5:46:36 AM PDT by mad_as_he$$
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To: LibLieSlayer

He’s probably under the mistaken assumption that these are all Southerners, waving the battle flag around while hoopin’ and hollerin’ and hatin’.


55 posted on 07/11/2013 5:49:55 AM PDT by AppyPappy (Obama: What did I not know and when did I not know it?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

maybe the prof doesn’t like the reminder that Americans will fight (what they believe) injustice?

Some of the re-enactors ARE more knowledgeable.....


56 posted on 07/11/2013 6:02:35 AM PDT by kimtom (USA ; Freedom is not Free)
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To: Salamander

So what you are saying is that for some reason this nut case has a bias against for re-enactors, and should just STFU?


57 posted on 07/11/2013 6:06:14 AM PDT by Venturer
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Carmichael is just voicing what academics feel about the rest of us paeons!! Mommas don’t send your babies to Gettysburg College to get indoctrinated by atheists, Marxists, and other just plain losers!! He really oughta be more careful with saying what he REALLY thinks — his college, if it is like most small liberal arts colleges these days, can probably barely fill its freshman class in the coming year since tuition is what, $42,000 a year there???


58 posted on 07/11/2013 6:18:37 AM PDT by browniexyz
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The National Park Service does depend heavily on re-enactors for other purposes. For example, after I retired from re-enacting, I spent two years at the Manassas National Battlefield Park as a volunteer delivering talks to tourists on what occurred at the Old Stone House during those two epic battles. This required knowledge of the house itself, the battles, and the common soldiers and how they ended up there for medical treatment.


59 posted on 07/11/2013 6:19:30 AM PDT by OldPossum
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To: tdscpa

When I want to read history, I find that usually if there is a PhD behind the author’s name, the book is nearly unreadable!! The best historians are so-called “amateurs” I think— they tend to write with passion and clarity.


60 posted on 07/11/2013 6:21:06 AM PDT by browniexyz
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