Tracing your CW interest catalyst...

[Remember1864]

Found mine after much internet research. I KNEW the trigger for my Civil War enthusiasm came about from a PBS show, but that was about the extent of it. Then I found the website for a television show titled "Inside Out". This was it. And now I had proof. The epsiode was named; " Can I help?" In short, and according to the episode description a young boy..."while on a field trip to a Civil War ground...wanders off looking for artifacts and falls down a hill and hurts himself." The artifact in question was a period bottle if memory holds. It was that show that really sparked my CW interest. Couple that with a trip to Lincoln's tomb when I was but 5 years old, and suffice to say...I was hooked for life.

[Dan Wambaugh]

Re: Tracing your CW interest catalyst...

John,

Aside from of course watching "Glory" religiously for a summer, I had seen while on vacation in PA a documentary (probably on PBS) where they were talking with re-enactors. I have only a vague recollection of it, I remember a part where a "hardcore" guy talked about not wearing underwear, and another part where the same guy talked about the cameraman (who was of Asian decent) and how he would recommend that fellow go with a more mainstream unit as he wouldn't be authentic in this guy's "hardcore" unit.

This would have been circa early to mid 90s, but I would LOVE to find a copy of that documentary somewhere, boy did it create a monster!


Best,

[Private Glover]

Re: Tracing your CW interest catalyst...

For me it was at Gettysburg, 4th of July weekend, 1976. We got a chance to see a living historian who, to this day, I can still see and hear clearly. It was if the man became possessed by a ghost for those thirty minutes and the long-dead soldier was actually speaking, looking out through his host's eyes. That passion and commitment hooked me right then and there.

[Possum Skinner]

Re: Tracing your CW interest catalyst...

When I was a child, my grandparents were ardent readers and reciters of history. My grandmother constantly bought books for me, including the Time/Life Civil War set. I used to spend hours reading those and scanning the pictures.

Also, at the same grandmother's house, I found a Confederate $100 note stuck away in an old leather change purse. When I discovered the origins of the bill, I began to seek my genealogy, etc...

It all eventually culminated with my wearing of funny clothes and snuggling up to strange men in the woods.

[Jubilo]

Re: Tracing your CW interest catalyst...

Dear Sir,
I cannot remember which occurred first but these are my earliest memories: Seeing Randolph Scott as a Confederate officer in the film "Virginia City," receiving a cardboard punch-out book of Soldiers of the Blue and Gray, having two first grade classmates , one from Mississippi and one from Tennessee who fascinated me with their accents, and some adult telling me about Robert E. Lee. By the time the "Gray Ghost" TV series was aired I already had a battleflag on a stick . In the words of poet Bob Dylan: " I started out on burgundy and soon hit the harder stuff." Thanks for posting !
all for the old flag,
David Corbett

[Parault]

Re: Tracing your CW interest catalyst...

I guess my catalyst happened when I was 10 years old. The first time I went on a trip to see Vicksburg. I met a (what I thought was a real Civil War Soldier, at 10 yrs old) reenactor. He was of what I can remember an excellent first person. I was so hooked. That was in the early seventies.

[orngblsm]

Re: Tracing your CW interest catalyst...

Gents,

Saw the movie gettysburg when I was ten, three years later I joined a civil war club at my high school. The civil war club was linked to a reenacting organization, the 124th NY, which suited me up . Attended my first event in 1996, got interested in the authentic movement around 2000, and here I am today...

Respectfully,

[Kanawha Riflemen]

Re: Tracing your CW interest catalyst...

History was always an interest to me especially the Civil War. When I was young, I remember the teacher yelling at me for reading Civil War books instead of doing my Science reading. (The class room was split one half for history & the other for science.) My father would take me as a child to Gettysburg and Fort Frederick a lot because it was free and I could run wild. In high school there was a painting in the cafeteria of Confederate Maryland soldiers in Frederick going door to door I remember the upside down US buckle and the gray uniforms. It was painted by some one who graduated before me. This painting was a monster. I was the only student at that time who realized what that painting was and even when the city kids would make fun of those FFA members including me for wearing a Confederate flag tee-shirt based upon a Country Music group, they never once realized what that painting was. Ever since I laid eyes on that painting I wanted do everything I could to be part of something like that. When I began re-enacting in 1996 as a farb a year after I graduated (Looking back compared to today I am a little embarrassed to look at those photographs) I was hooked. Today I am a leading member of my community bringing back its long lost Civil War Heritage and it all started with my dad, a teacher yelling at me and also a painting.

___________________
John A. Miller
Monterey Pass Battlefield
South Mountain State Battlefield
Heritage Development Committee, OMF

[NewHopeChurch]

Re: Tracing your CW interest catalyst...

I'd been into history, especially military history, my whole early life. Then one day, when I was in 9th grade, I was thumbing through my sister's Advanced Placement US History book (She's 3 years older than me). Upon reaching the section on the Civil War, I came across a map that showed the states that had seceeded and formed the Confederacy.

Georgia has a terrible, terrible way of teaching about the war - at least my teachers did. It was taught to me as "The War Between the States" with no reference to organized United States or Confederate forces. It was taught to me that, in essence, folks from the north didn't like slavery and attacked and invaded the southern states in an attempt to wipe it out. That was it, that was all the great public education system here had taught me. One teacher once told me that it was highly encouraged to skimp over the war over a matter of no more than 2 days, then move on.

So, fast forward to my discovery in my sister's book. You mean to tell me that there was actually an attempt to create a second country on the American continent? That blew my mind, especially as I was beginning to delve deep into political studies. Suddenly the nearby battlefield of Kennesaw Mountain took on an entirely new dimension. Suddenly the trenchlines that ran near my house in Dallas meant something else, something bigger.

From that moment, there was no turning back.

ps - thank you, Georgia.

[Cyclesmith]

Re: Tracing your CW interest catalyst...

Being of Northern birth and in the upper midwest I had no real connection to History when I was young. But when I was 13 years old my family moved to Radford Va. History suddenly seems alive to me... seeing real battlefields. I had a history teacher that year (I forgot his name atm) who was probably the first teacher that was able to connect with me and pull me in. Suddenly history made sence to me. On weekends my family would visit Battlefields and go to Stonewall Jackson's home... etc. After 2 year we moved to Erie Pennsylvania where I joined the 111th PA... I was 15. It was the year Glory and The Civil War Series were popular and I just happen to get in the unit before the hordes of others joined. I was the king of Farb!!! Man was I Farbby!!! But I was having fun. I honed my impression and attended local events. My first National Event was 13o Gettysburg. By 132 Cedar Creek I had become a Full Blown progressive reenactor. Also was the same year I turn coated to Confederate. I was just tired of the Union thing. In 1996 I moved to Wisconsin where I began doing a Western Impression for both Union and Confederate. And thats where I still am today.... minus the 2 years I spent doing WW2 British Airborne. But I came back!! My last "National Event" was 137th Gettysburg where I vowed I would never attend another national event.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Tracing your CW interest catalyst...

Hallo!

At the age of 12 when...

The City of Johnstown, PA declared that the Sandyville city cemetery was old and overgrown, and so decided that they would bulldoze everything flat and nice- and plant grass.
So we received a call asking if wanted the worn and weathered military gravestone of my g-g-grandfather Andrew Miller, of Company "M" of Colonel Marcus Reno's 12th PA Cavalry, as they were throwing the grave stones away.
(He now lies in an unarked grave somewhere under the grass of the park.)

And, as they say, the rest is history.

Curt

(Reenacting is just modeling in 1:1 scale)

[Sgt Scotti]

Re: Tracing your CW interest catalyst...

The History bug bit me in the butt earlier than I can remember. All I know is that I was living in Germany with my parents. My "Oma" (grandmother/babysitter) had a map of the US and it was divided in colors between the north and south with a strange red flag with a big blue "X" Both of my parents being in the Army it was easy for me to get into Military History, when we came stateside, I looked into what that flag meant and what the north and south was all about. This all started about 6 or 7 years old. Fast forward to Midlle and High school, I lived in Maryland where both my parents ended up retiring at APG. The WBTS was all around me. Sharpsburg, Gettysburg, Virginia. I had never seen a reenactment except for a living history at a fair in my county. So I started looking into reenactments and units on the internet. My first event was the 140th Sharpsburg in 2002. O dark 30 in the morning standing by to enter the Cornfield in battle front with the arty boys and fife and drums behind me; it sent one hell of chill down my spine. Since then Ive been hooked, unfortuantley my current Occupation has kept me busy elsewhares, but Im starting back up and trying out the Progressive side. Great thread.

[Secesh]

Re: Tracing your CW interest catalyst...

My interest, believe it or not, began at the age of 5 (I'll be 50 this year) with my cousin's "Blue & Gray Battle Set" from Marx Toys. These sets now fetch over $500 complete! Anyway, my cousin gave me one of the Union soldiers, a wounded Yank seated on the ground with his arm in a sling. I was fascinated by this toy soldier's uniform, and asked my Mother all about him. From there it grew to trips to the library where I'd check out Civil War books and pour over the photos, to acquiring my own personal library. The study of the War has literally been a lifelong passion, expecially concerning the common soldier. And yes, I still have that little toy soldier that started it all - he sits in my display case amongst my other Civil War artifacts.

[J_V]

Re: Tracing your CW interest catalyst...

For me, the spark happened in a high-school history class. My previous Civil War "teachers" had skimped over the material, from what seemed to be some sort of odd impression that 20th Century history was somehow more important.

While in history class in my junior year, our teacher made the War come to life, first by teaching as objectively as she could, and then by involving us in a mock pre-War debate over the issues of the time, and slavery was, of course, very prominent in the mix.

When it was over, my other classmates felt ashamed for their part in the mock debate (the ones that had to debate from the Southern side), and kept apologizing to my friend, who was African-American. My friend asked, "why is everyone apologizing and feeling guilty? [This is history, people.]"

My interest was compounded when my mother told me of our Southern ancestry, and that some of our ancestors sided with the Union, and others with the Confederacy. I have learned since that my G-Grandfather to the third or fourth power was in the 2nd Texas Mounted Rifles.

From there, my historical interests have migrated from the East to the Trans-Mississippi, the stomping grounds of my Southern kinfolk, both gray and blue.

[LibertyHallVols]

Re: Tracing your CW interest catalyst...

Spending my early childhood in this house probably got things going...


My parents had a thing for old brick farmhouses. This one dates to the 1830's. Living in an old home as a child helped teach me the concept of time and history ("old" versus "new" and changes that happen over time). On the property at that time were also two older barns and some discarded refuse from prior residents (including the remains of a wagon!).

This, combined with the American Heritage "Pictoral History...", and "The Blue and the Grey" miniseries set my interest for life.