About Reenacting

 

O.K., so you’ve seen the Civil War documentaries on TV. Maybe you’ve watched a few Civil War movies or even looked through a few books. Perhaps you’ve been to see a reenactment or simply remember being facsinated by the Civil War when you studied it in school.

We all enjoy learning about the Civil War. But…..have you experienced it for yourself? Have you re-lived history?

Imagine.

Imagine being awakened at daybreak by the bugler’s reveille to a breakfast of hardtack and coffee.

Imagine seeing lovely ladies socializing at tea and being escorted to the ball by a handsomely dressed gentlemen.

Imagine experiencing a moment where everything is just right. The clothes are right, the scenery is exact, the sounds, the smells, and the feeling is so perfect that you are momentarily stunned by a surreal feeling that you actually are in the Civil War period and you catch yourself saying, “Wow, this is what it was really like”.

Imagine marching in formation with hundreds of fellow soldiers, not speaking a word, but feeling a jittery anxiousness knowing the battle you’ve all been waiting for is about to begin.

Imagine your heart pounding in your chest from a sense of real panic as you look through clouds of gunsmoke and see the enemy line getting uncomfortably close.

Imagine sitting around the campfire at night and as the sounds from an old time banjo and fiddle comes from another camp next to yours, you and your friends talk late into the night about the days events and everything else; from horses to guns, to history, politics, how General So-and-So could have won such-and-such battle if he had’ve just done this or that, how the War got started in the first place, and what makes this country great.

Imagine laying down to sleep on the cold, hard ground of an actual battle field. From the far end of camp you hear the bugler play Taps and you realize that on the very spot where you are laying, a real Civil War soldier might also have layed down to sleep, or perhaps even to die.

This is what reenacting is about. This is what we do in the 3rd Texas Cavalry.

The best part of the reenacting hobby is experiencing it with others who have an appreciation for history and the lessons we can learn from it. If being a Civil War reenactor sounds like something you’d like to do, why not contact us? We’d be happy to show you how to get started.