Welcome Civil War Reenactors !



 

Click HERE for Battle Hymn of the Republic
Click HERE for the "Bonnie Blue Flag"

   Welcome to “The Civil War Reenactors Handbook” which is simply 
 “Everything you always wanted to know about Civil War Reenacting and
  were afraid to ask”! With this book you will be able to go out into your
  camp and not feel like a foreigner. You will be up to speed with the lingo
  and tricks of the trade. It took me years to figure some of this stuff and I
  even learned a few things while putting this book together. 

  The purpose of this book is to bring you up to speed as a new reenactor and make you feel comfortable with your fellow reenactors, also to give  some tips to the seasoned reenactors. It is to enable you to go out there with the appearance that you are roughing it while you are actually reenacting in comfort when off the battle field and on.

I got hooked the very first time that I went to a Civil War Reenactment and joined up with an artillery unit right on the spot. I got my oldest son involved also who really enjoyed getting out, camping and doing the events as I did. Naturally I wanted to start buying all my neat stuff right away and got heavily involved with the unit. Unfortunately I went out and was sold and bought a lot of the wrong stuff. Everybody had their own opinion, not all were wrong, just not right for me.

This is a past time that the whole family can enjoy and you as a reenactor can participate in with your children, parents and grandparents. Many of the wives and girlfriends of the reenactors get involved. It is a great way to get out from the modern day pressures  and city to do some traveling and work with school children on living history events and such.

I wanted to know as much as possible. I wanted to share some of my knowledge with you and others and have put this book together, your field manual so to speak. I have a bad back and did not want to go out to the events and be uncomfortable, not being a spring chicken myself, so to speak. I loved going back in time to that period with the coal oil and candle lanterns, camp fires and cast iron cooking utensils. I truly loved to camp out at the events and learned how to have all the comforts that I required, and do so in a camouflaged manner! This really made the experience much more enjoyable for me, I had the best of both worlds.

You will want to consider several things before you really get involved into reenacting. First is which type of an outfit you want to go with and which side of the war do you want to portray. Many of us have ancestors who fought in the War between the states and some of your are members of the Sons of Union Veterans or the Son's of Confederate Veterans. If you were on the Union side it was know as the 'War of the Great Rebellion" on the Confederate side it was know as the "War of the Great Aggression". Some of you may be SOB's (Sons of Both sides) by this day and age. That's OK, cause many of us cross dress here, NOW WAIT, I mean we may go Union at one event and Confederate at another.

Which type of outfit do you want to join? Infantry, Cavalry or Artillery? This will have a major impact on your equipment and uniform purchases and also some physical limitations you may have. There are also slots for civilian reenactors, the women and we always need medical personnel for reenactors, for the period dress and utensils.

You will become a living historian!