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THE CURRENT STATE OF AUTHENTIC CIVIL WAR LIVING HISTORY
By Eric Tipton
There has been a lot of talk in recent years about "The Death of Civil War Reenacting", especially since the conclusion of the 150th events. The narrative goes something like this: "With the retirements of aging Baby Boomers, recent press about taking down Civil War monuments and lack of new Civil War pop culture, we are losing more people than we are gaining". I am happy to report that on the authentic living history side of the ledger, this is decidedly not the case. In fact, we are growing and getting stronger. Allow me to elaborate.
THE 150TH EFFECT
In hindsight, the 150th Anniversary events did not help authentic living history. In my opinion, those events, in which we raised adjuncts, hurt us. For five years, the "mega" events monopolized our schedule. There were some obviously successful efforts, such as the 15th Iowa at Shiloh in 2012, Murray's Brigade at Gettysburg in 2013 and 40 Rounds at Bentonville in 2015. While these adjuncts were excellent for us, the benefits went to the organizers and not to us. Now, I am not saying that we shouldn't have done the adjuncts. We had to do them and did so with our usual zeal. For many of us, these events were some of our best memories in recent years. But you can see where I am going with this. There is a reason we call our circuit "Events By Us, For Us". The 150th Events were neither and they left us with some unfortunate side effects.
It is my observation that one of the negative "by-products" of the 150th efforts was the desire to raise brigades instead of battalions. The thinking was that coming out of the 150ths, we would raise larger numbers to justify this arrangement even though prior to the 150ths, as a community, we were successful using a "battalion vs. battalion" model. In essence, we adopted a mainstream mentality where commanders took precedence over men. Instead of planning from the bottom-up, we started looking at things from the top-down. Going forward, I strongly believe this is a mistake. I will elaborate on this point a little later, so hold that thought.
GROWTH IN AUTHENTIC LIVING HISTORY
If you look at our overall numbers today vs. ten years ago, we are not shrinking. Quite the contrary. We are growing - both in the number of events and in the number of men. What is missing compared to years past is cohesion. This cohesion is created by individuals within our hobby thinking big and putting together "national" efforts. This year, there are twelve different EBUFU events plus two adjuncts. We are beginning to see event-planning occurring 2-3 years into the future again. These things are important and a testament to our growth.
After the 150th "hangover" the number of EBUFU events dwindled, for the reasons I have already stated, but today we have fully-recovered. There are younger living historians who are actively stepping up to organize events. The 150ths were a "Swan-Song" for many older reenactors. This was their final bucket list. They had been through the 130th, 135th, 140th and 145th anniversary events and some for even longer. The 150ths represented their final cycle. That is natural. That is fine, but the worry was that there weren't enough people coming into the hobby to replace them. Well, look around. We have a full slate of events to choose from, all over the country. But will small living histories fit-the-bill? Will these events fuel future growth? Yes and no.
As many have pointed out, these regional living histories will always be a strong foundation for what we do. These, in my opinion, have replaced the people we used to draw out of the mainstream adjuncts. For years, we went to large mainstream events and this was our chance to shine. I can't count how many times I have been a part of a large battalion that proudly stepped out onto the field of a "mega event". I can also vividly remember being a part of a mainstream battalion in 2002 when the 105th Ohio streaked across the field at Perryville. "Wow", I thought. "THAT is what I want to do." What a great recruiting tool it was for the authentic living history community. It was the best way to "lead by example". Show them. Don't tell them. Back in those days, this model worked very well for us. In 2018, not so much. The current slate of living histories are a fantastic way to grow authentic living history in each region. They are the building blocks for our current schedule.
AUTHENTIC VS. MAINSTREAM - "WELCOME TO THE SOCIAL MEDIA AGE"
While the EBUFU events continue to attract younger people and those younger people step up to organize events, I am not seeing the same thing happen on the mainstream end of the spectrum. Many times over the last few years, I have asked myself "why is that?" "Why are mega events decreasing in size so dramatically?" Can anyone disagree that they aren't? When I interviewed the Mudsills in July of last year, I was truly awed to hear about 20,000 - 30,000 people at mega-events. Concurrently, the Mudsills were consistently putting large battalions in the field. If you watched my interview with them, you will notice that I was intrigued about this dynamic just as much as they were interested to hear about the EBUFU events that go on today. Things have certainly changed. Back in the day, we could count on the mainstream to generate large numbers. Out of those numbers, we were born. Today, this is not how it works, because the mainstream is dying. I don't think this can be contested. But why?
I think that the outside factors affecting interest in the Civil War are directly affecting mainstream reenacting. These factors include, but are not limited to the following, now-familiar narrative: What is taught about the Civil War in schools, the monument controversy, aging baby boomers, modern redefinition of the war and last and most importantly, SOCIAL MEDIA. Correct me if you think I am wrong, but authentic living historians made a seamless transition into the world of social media that I haven't seen from the mainstream. Almost overnight, authentic events started Facebook groups. Recruiting efforts spread rapidly through our social media network. Debates left the forums and went to social media. This is why I felt it was so imperative that The Authentic Campaigner capitalize on this new trend. This is why it was a primary focus of the revitalized AC to have a large presence on Facebook. We needed to be there because that is where everyone is. Right? How did you arrive at this post? I'll bet it was social media.
While we took this leap into social media, I further recognized the absolute need to centralize information for the authentic hobby. While social media is an outstanding and indispensable platform, it also encourages a fragmentation of information. This is why you have seen so much emphasis on the event schedule for 2018 at the AC. Have you seen a central gathering place for information on mainstream events? What replaced Camp Chase? Does mainstream reenacting still rely on print media? Isn't that medium dying on it's own?
CONTINUING GROWTH OF OUR HOBBY GOING FORWARD
When I see new blood at events, more event offerings and savvy social media marketing, I see a hobby that is not only not dying, but continuing to adapt and grow. I see a strong foundation for the future. I see a community that is no longer dependent on it's larger sibling - the mainstream reenacting community to attract recruits. I'm going to come right out and say what I have been telling many people privately for the last couple of years. With social media, the authentic living history community can go straight to our market without having to rely on the mainstream to generate interest. If there is any one reason why authentic civil war living history is growing, it is this. The model used by the Mudsills and Cleburnes and other organizations for years no longer applies. In other words, we don't necessarily need to rely on the mainstream any more. In many ways, we have accomplished our goal to become more self-sufficient. This is a great thing.
As a community, I only see one further step that needs to occur, which was more pronounced ten - fifteen years ago. We need to make an effort as a community to coalesce around our own larger efforts, otherwise known as "National" events. In the past and for years, The Western Independent Grays (WIG) provided this leadership for larger events. The WIG usually had 2-3 "max effort events each year" and each year, an opposition, mainly from the Midwest, was ready to oppose them - much like the days when Cleburnes opposed the Mudsills.
A caveat to this is what I mentioned earlier. For the time-being, we are much better-off doing battalion vs. battalion events. It is where our numbers are right now. We have not the ability to raise two solid battalions just like we always have. Hopefully, the time will come where the need for brigades will be obvious. I am confident that this will happen, but it should be on our own terms and not because it was something that we did as a result of the 150ths. I believe the time for brigades will come when we can attract 800 folks to an EBUFU event.
So, how are we doing as a community? The state of Authentic Civil War Living History is strong and will only become stronger if we can focus on working together to continue to build our OWN larger events. Keep doing what you are doing folks. Utilize social media. Use it to be a missionary for our cause. The AC will be here to trumpet and magnify your efforts. You can be well-assured of that.
So, what are your thoughts about future growth? What else can we do as a community to continue this momentum? What ideas do you have for larger-scale EBUFU events?
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