The Behavior of Soldiers Wounded in Battle by Kevin O'Beirne, Columbia Rifles

[Charles Heath]

Re: The Behavior of Soldiers Wounded in Battle by Kevin O'Beirne, Columbia Rifles

This article will certainly come in handy this coming weekend at Crittenden's Farm (based on the Cedar Mountain affair) , and I hope the casualty scenario is a good beta test for After The Battle/Slaughter Pen in November. Well, let's see if we can find that prisoner article as a companion piece.

[Duff]

Re: The Behavior of Soldiers Wounded in Battle by Kevin O'Beirne, Columbia Rifles

I agree with Dale and Kevin. Fake blood is definatly in bad taste. Plus it seems a little corny and overly theatrical when I do see it at an event.

As for blood staining, a blood stain could be authentic where someone may have cut himself or something and got blood on his clothing. The problem with fake blood is it is NOT real blood, and will stain the clothing a different way then real blood.

Re: The Behavior of Soldiers Wounded in Battle by Kevin O'Beirne, Columbia Rifles

There was a minor brawl over this in the medical section of Szabo's Zoo. I think we were split down the middle (fortunately without any blood). As you can imagine I clamped down on the idea of fake blood for the same reasons here - bad taste, given what's going on in real life, fake blood looks fake, most reenactors have no idea how to act wounded, and the like. I plugged this article in case I got any dissenting views. Eventually it wandered over to blood-stained aprons on surgeons. Not only are blood-stained aprons something of a reenactorism, it seems they were not part of the official issue in the hospital supply requests.

I set up my surgical procedures so one only gets a glimpse of what's going on and their fetid imagination fills in the rest.

[BobbyHughes]

Re: The Behavior of Soldiers Wounded in Battle by Kevin O'Beirne, Columbia Rifles

"It would be interesting to see people dragging severed limbs on and off of the battlefield".--Tyler Gibson

NO it is not, I assure you.

Dale, agree 100% Half the reason I can tolerate this hobby is the lack of blood. Somethings just dont need to be seen again. Seen it, had a comrade lose an arm, No Thanks. We start doing this, I am out.

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Re: The Behavior of Soldiers Wounded in Battle by Kevin O'Beirne, Columbia Rifles

all forms of fake blood that I have seen stain clothing. So unless you want to have a bloodsoaked uniform, then you should keep at a distance from the fake blood.

It would be interesting to see people dragging severed limbs on and off of the battlefield.

Regarding the fake blood, staining of clothing is just one reason why one rarely sees it used in reenacting, and usually when it is, it's by someone with a "head wound" or something similar.

As for soldier-impressionists "dragging severed limbs on and off the" field, why would soldiers in the Civil War have done such a gruesome thing? This isn't a George Romero film. In those days when it was hacked off by a cannonball, it was gone for good. They didn't re-attach limbs in those days.

I suggest that there's a difference between portraying a wounded soldier and portraying the gore that was present on every Civil War battlefield. The former is certainly feasible and probably desirable for those who do "more-accurate" portrayals overall; the latter is, like "authentic" disease, an aspect of the Civil War that reenactors do not and should not portray. The reason why the topic of battlefield gore was covered at all in the essay is because it was a reality of the battlefield, and it's important for reenactors to understand if they are going to actually be knowledgable about this subject.

Regarding the CRRC, if you want info on obtaining one, use "www.google.com" with "Columbia Rifles Research Compendium" in the search window, or go to www.columbiarifles.org and click on the big CRRC2 icon.

[woodsda]

Re: The Behavior of Soldiers Wounded in Battle by Kevin O'Beirne, Columbia Rifles

Dale, agreed, seeing wounded and dead in real life is not fun, especially when you know them!!!

Don Woods
USMC
OIF II

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: The Behavior of Soldiers Wounded in Battle by Kevin O'Beirne, Columbia Rifles

Dale-

Agreed.

-Johnny

[Dale Beasley]

Re: The Behavior of Soldiers Wounded in Battle by Kevin O'Beirne, Columbia Rifles

"It would be interesting to see people dragging severed limbs on and off of the battlefield".--Tyler Gibson

NO it is not, I assure you.

[drsimm1776]

WHERE CAN I PURCHASE A COPY OF The Columbia Rifles Resarch Compendium, 2nd Edition.

WHERE CAN I PURCHASE A COPY OF The Columbia Rifles Resarch Compendium, 2nd Edition., 1ST EDITION ETC?
drsimm@juno.com

[Tyler Gibson]

Re: The Behavior of Soldiers Wounded in Battle by Kevin O'Beirne, Columbia Rifles

the only shortcoming with the "blood" spurting from ones mouth, or the sudden spurt of "blood" issuing forth from ones body, is that all forms of fake blood that I have seen stain clothing. So unless you want to have a bloodsoaked uniform, then you should keep at a distance from the fake blood.

It would be interesting to see people dragging severed limbs on and off of the battlefield.

[Officer Lightoller]

Re: The Behavior of Soldiers Wounded in Battle by Kevin O'Beirne, Columbia Rifles

That really helped me. I just wish I knew how to ad moulage at a moment's notice (Blood spraying, torn limb, etc.) It's a very nice article, and every reenactor should read it.

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Re: The Behavior of Soldiers Wounded in Battle by Kevin O'Beirne, Columbia Rifles

This article was published as “Taking Hits: The Behavior of Soldiers Wounded in Battle”, Civil War Historian magazine, January/February 2006, Vol 2 No 1, and was re-printed without permission as, “The Behavior of Soldiers Wounded in Battle: Taking Hits”, Camp Chase Gazette magazine, September 2006 (plagiarized article credited to “A.J. Fisk”).

This article is also included in The Columbia Rifles Resarch Compendium, 2nd Edition.

[paulcalloway]

"Howling Dervishes Dancing and Kicking Around in our Ranks": The Behavior of Soldiers Wounded in Battle by Kevin O'Beirne, Columbia Rifles.

The attached article is provided here with permission by Kevin O'Beirne, Columbia Rifles.