It started with a question to a friend I was camping with about 18 years ago. I asked him what the deal was with the wooden box he had near the fire as we sat around one night in the desert.
The box read, “Scott Peca, Capt., 2nd Kentucky Cav.”
"You ride horses or something?" I asked. He explained he was the commanding officer of a company of reenactors portraying a real company from the Civil War. He told me I should come and watch a reenactment some time.
I took him up on his suggestion a few weeks later. I walked into a park and up to the yellow tape lines designating the spectator area. I looked out over a field covered with Civil War soldiers including cannons and mounted troops.
I was mesmerized! Why hadn't I ever heard of this before?
I think the thing that really drew me in was the living history. It's one thing to read about history in a book but quite another to walk onto a field and interact with others portraying various units that fought in the Civil War.
Reenactors have what they call “Kodak Moments".
It's when, at some point during a reenactment, perhaps during an intense battle scenario, while blasting away in a timed volley as part of an infantry company, one looks through the smoke from the muskets, with maybe one’s ears ringing from the noise and feels like they are actually there in time. It’s truly amazing.
To put on the wool uniform, pick up a 9-pound musket, grab your canteen and fill your cartridge box and cap pouch with powder and caps, and march out onto the field where you are confronted by other reenactors, dressed as you are in period correct uniforms and then interact with them in amazing, simulated battle scenarios is something few get to experience.
The history then draws you in. Why did they do what they did? How did they do it?
To me it becomes like peeling an onion. First, you want to learn about the basics of the Civil War, one of the most momentous and profound times in American history. So you read some books and get a feeling for it all. But as you read, you wonder about other subjects mentioned in passing; who was this general? What happened in this battle? Why were these soldiers dressed differently than the others? So you get another book and another. You do more research, and the whole thing draws you even deeper and with that you get a more profound understanding of the history of the United States.
And that history is incredibly important. One of the most enjoyable parts of reenacting is interacting with the public. Having events that bring the public out to see what it's all about. Getting them interested in American history. Their history. Most folks kind of grind through the high school history classes and with reenacting you have a vehicle with which you can draw them in. Engage them. They SEE the soldiers and their uniforms and gear. Watch and HEAR the battles. They can visit the period-correct camps and look at how an army worked back in the day.
If, as a reenactor, I can get one person each day interested enough to go home and look up United States history, then I have done my job, because our common history is what the country is built on.
The experience can be as profound as one cares to make it.
As fun as hanging out around a campfire after the public has gone for the day, looking at the white tents reflecting the glow of lanterns while one eats a meal cooked over the fire like they did back in the day. Then waking with the sun to check your gear and powder before falling into line for morning safety inspection and maybe some drill before the public comes again and you get to reenact more history.
For example, as an officer I have to fill out paperwork, and I have the privilege of also handing out accommodations and promotions and the like. To that end I wondered what the style of writing was like back in the 1860s. It was a script that was called Spencerian, created as a very functional and easy way to write. Because if you think about it, there were very few ways for the common man to communicate other than writing. No cell phones with texting and spell correction. So how did they do it? I found it a fascinating line of research into something every day and that most people had as a basic skill: cursive writing. Something that is almost nonexistent today.
So, the love of history has drawn me in in many ways and continues to do so as I find new and interesting things to explore in our past and ways to become involved in our shared history. Something I feel is very important to preserve and to educate the upcoming generations about. To light that spark that gets folks to pick up a book or do a search online or become involved in reenacting.
It is OUR combined history after all, and we should all care about it and learn from it and be proud of America.