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Saw this article today. So, what do you think?
For Civil-War Buffs, 150-Year Anniversary Has Been Disappointing So Far
Promoters of Memorabilia, Tourism, Re-enactments Say Public Seems Apathetic; Relics Aren't Selling
By CAMERON MCWHIRTER
April 10, 2014 10:33 p.m. ET
Published in The Wall Street Journal - Here is the Link
RINGGOLD, Ga.—Don Dodson's relic and metal detector store is a mini-museum of Civil War artifacts—bullets, guns, cannonballs—many of them found near this town where Union and Confederate armies once fought.When the war's 150th anniversary began three years ago, the 63-year-old wanted to see relics fly off the shelves. But with just one year left in the celebration, the shop's glass cases remain full.
"We were hoping for more tourist traffic than we've seen," he says. "It was disappointing."
Promoters of Civil War memorabilia, tourism and re-enactments across the country are fighting a losing battle against apathy for one of the most important periods in U.S. history—a cataclysmic event that shaped the nation and helped define its soul. Limited government funding to stage events and public unease over the divisive racial issues that the war represents are two factors for low turnout, say Civil War buffs.
And younger Americans have other things on their minds, from social media to superheroes.
"If it's a celebration, it's a celebration that the public is either not aware of or not interested in," sighs Jamie Delson, owner of the Toy Soldier Company, a mail-order business with a warehouse in Jersey City, N.J.
For the anniversary in 2011 of the war's opening salvos, Mr. Delson developed special toy soldier sets marking famous Civil War battles, anticipating a bump in sales. Instead, his Civil War soldiers—from inexpensive plastic privates to a hand-painted metal version of Maj. Gen. George Pickett, asking price $325—make up only 5% of sales, behind figures from World War II and the American Revolution, he says.
Louis Varnell opened the History Company, a military memorabilia store in Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., near Chickamauga battlefield, where more than 34,000 men were killed, wounded, reported missing or captured in an 1863 clash.
"We were thinking the sesquicentennial was really going to help us out," says the 44-year-old former history schoolteacher and longtime re-enactor. In all of 2013, he only had two weekends when sales were good, he says. He sells more World War II collectibles "to keep the lights on," he says.
Gary Gallagher, a Civil War expert at the University of Virginia, says the anniversary is "anemic" in part because Americans still find the subject uncomfortable. "It's hard to talk about if you don't mention race, emancipation and slavery," he says.
Another major factor is widespread ignorance, says David Heidler, who co-edited the five-volume "Encyclopedia of the American Civil War" with his wife. "Significant numbers of people have no idea when the Civil War occurred, let alone what it was about," he says.
A poll by Public Policy Polling last summer asked Georgians what they thought of Union Major Gen. William T. Sherman, once despised here for his destructive March to the Sea, which began in Atlanta. The poll found that most people don't care: Fifty-six percent had no opinion of Sherman at all and only 28% disliked him. In comparison, 63% disliked reality TV star Honey Boo Boo.
Some events, including re-enactments last summer marking the July 1863 Battle of Gettysburg, have drawn large crowds. The Civil War Trust, a nonprofit that preserves battlefields, just surpassed its $40 million goal for a capital campaign tied to the anniversary and set a new goal of $50 million.
But the war's enthusiasts worry that the lackluster anniversary marks a general retreat.
Even at Gettysburg, the war's most famous battlefield, the numbers pale in comparison to the past: Nearly seven million people scampered along its rolling hills in the peak year of 1970, compared with 1.2 million last year, according to the National Park Service.
"The whole thing sort of fizzled," says Steve Sylvia, editor of North South Trader's Civil War, a memorabilia magazine. "The shot in the arm that many of us were anticipating just never materialized."
It wasn't always like this. The 1990 broadcast of the PBS documentary "The Civil War" by Ken Burns ignited obsessive public interest, leading to movies, books, battlefield visits and brigades of men joining re-enactments. Ed Mann, a re-enactor, says that when he traveled to the 135th anniversary of Gettysburg in 1998, 20,000 men in gray and blue took the field.
Re-enactments this anniversary have been "shadows" of that event, says Mr. Mann, a 66-year-old Los Angeles attorney. And crowds gathering to watch have also fallen. An annual re-enactment in Long Beach drew about 3,500 paying attendees when it started several years ago, but it was canceled after 2012 when only about 1,000 showed up, Mr. Mann says.
"If there are no light swords and aliens with huge special effects and cities disappearing, a lot of teenagers and early 20-somethings are just not interested," he says.
In the South, Confederate heritage, once an intense point of pride, has been forgotten by many and to others is a source of embarrassment. A Civil War ball planned for this month in Prescott, Ark., was canceled after some community members were offended and "didn't want to celebrate that aspect of our history," says Bill Fish, president of the group that had organized the festivities.
Nor have the country's politicians, generations removed from Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee, widely embraced the war's remembrance.
In 2011, President Barack Obama issued a proclamation urging people to observe the anniversary. But he didn't set up a federal commission to oversee events, and congressional efforts to do so died in committee. Many states, citing the poor economy, slashed budgets for commemorations.
In Ringgold, Ga., a town of about 3,600 in Georgia's mountains about 90 miles northwest of Atlanta, town leaders, local companies and Civil War buffs raised about $120,000 in 2008 for a bronze statue of little-known Confederate Major Gen. Patrick Cleburne. He won the Battle of Ringgold Gap on Nov. 27, 1863, and some in town hoped the statue, the anniversary and Ringgold's location near Interstate 75 would draw tourists.
Mr. Dodson says the statue and anniversary did little for his store, North Georgia Relics and Metal Detectors, started seven years ago. Today he makes most of his money selling metal detectors over the Internet, many to people looking for gold or objects unrelated to the Civil War, he says.
At the small park where the Cleburne statue stands, no one came to visit on a recent weekday morning until Dave Van Dyke, 63, a retired factory worker who lives outside of town, parked his pickup to eat a breakfast burrito. Asked if he knew anything about Gen. Cleburne, he shrugged: "Not really."
According to Mr. Van Dyke, every spring, when area farmers turned over their fields, "You used to see people looking for Civil War stuff with metal detectors. I haven't seen them out there in years."
Link to the original article on the Wall Street Journal: Click Here.
Saw this article today. So, what do you think?
For Civil-War Buffs, 150-Year Anniversary Has Been Disappointing So Far
Promoters of Memorabilia, Tourism, Re-enactments Say Public Seems Apathetic; Relics Aren't Selling
By CAMERON MCWHIRTER
April 10, 2014 10:33 p.m. ET
Published in The Wall Street Journal - Here is the Link
RINGGOLD, Ga.—Don Dodson's relic and metal detector store is a mini-museum of Civil War artifacts—bullets, guns, cannonballs—many of them found near this town where Union and Confederate armies once fought.When the war's 150th anniversary began three years ago, the 63-year-old wanted to see relics fly off the shelves. But with just one year left in the celebration, the shop's glass cases remain full.
"We were hoping for more tourist traffic than we've seen," he says. "It was disappointing."
Promoters of Civil War memorabilia, tourism and re-enactments across the country are fighting a losing battle against apathy for one of the most important periods in U.S. history—a cataclysmic event that shaped the nation and helped define its soul. Limited government funding to stage events and public unease over the divisive racial issues that the war represents are two factors for low turnout, say Civil War buffs.
And younger Americans have other things on their minds, from social media to superheroes.
"If it's a celebration, it's a celebration that the public is either not aware of or not interested in," sighs Jamie Delson, owner of the Toy Soldier Company, a mail-order business with a warehouse in Jersey City, N.J.
For the anniversary in 2011 of the war's opening salvos, Mr. Delson developed special toy soldier sets marking famous Civil War battles, anticipating a bump in sales. Instead, his Civil War soldiers—from inexpensive plastic privates to a hand-painted metal version of Maj. Gen. George Pickett, asking price $325—make up only 5% of sales, behind figures from World War II and the American Revolution, he says.
Louis Varnell opened the History Company, a military memorabilia store in Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., near Chickamauga battlefield, where more than 34,000 men were killed, wounded, reported missing or captured in an 1863 clash.
"We were thinking the sesquicentennial was really going to help us out," says the 44-year-old former history schoolteacher and longtime re-enactor. In all of 2013, he only had two weekends when sales were good, he says. He sells more World War II collectibles "to keep the lights on," he says.
Gary Gallagher, a Civil War expert at the University of Virginia, says the anniversary is "anemic" in part because Americans still find the subject uncomfortable. "It's hard to talk about if you don't mention race, emancipation and slavery," he says.
Another major factor is widespread ignorance, says David Heidler, who co-edited the five-volume "Encyclopedia of the American Civil War" with his wife. "Significant numbers of people have no idea when the Civil War occurred, let alone what it was about," he says.
A poll by Public Policy Polling last summer asked Georgians what they thought of Union Major Gen. William T. Sherman, once despised here for his destructive March to the Sea, which began in Atlanta. The poll found that most people don't care: Fifty-six percent had no opinion of Sherman at all and only 28% disliked him. In comparison, 63% disliked reality TV star Honey Boo Boo.
Some events, including re-enactments last summer marking the July 1863 Battle of Gettysburg, have drawn large crowds. The Civil War Trust, a nonprofit that preserves battlefields, just surpassed its $40 million goal for a capital campaign tied to the anniversary and set a new goal of $50 million.
But the war's enthusiasts worry that the lackluster anniversary marks a general retreat.
Even at Gettysburg, the war's most famous battlefield, the numbers pale in comparison to the past: Nearly seven million people scampered along its rolling hills in the peak year of 1970, compared with 1.2 million last year, according to the National Park Service.
"The whole thing sort of fizzled," says Steve Sylvia, editor of North South Trader's Civil War, a memorabilia magazine. "The shot in the arm that many of us were anticipating just never materialized."
It wasn't always like this. The 1990 broadcast of the PBS documentary "The Civil War" by Ken Burns ignited obsessive public interest, leading to movies, books, battlefield visits and brigades of men joining re-enactments. Ed Mann, a re-enactor, says that when he traveled to the 135th anniversary of Gettysburg in 1998, 20,000 men in gray and blue took the field.
Re-enactments this anniversary have been "shadows" of that event, says Mr. Mann, a 66-year-old Los Angeles attorney. And crowds gathering to watch have also fallen. An annual re-enactment in Long Beach drew about 3,500 paying attendees when it started several years ago, but it was canceled after 2012 when only about 1,000 showed up, Mr. Mann says.
"If there are no light swords and aliens with huge special effects and cities disappearing, a lot of teenagers and early 20-somethings are just not interested," he says.
In the South, Confederate heritage, once an intense point of pride, has been forgotten by many and to others is a source of embarrassment. A Civil War ball planned for this month in Prescott, Ark., was canceled after some community members were offended and "didn't want to celebrate that aspect of our history," says Bill Fish, president of the group that had organized the festivities.
Nor have the country's politicians, generations removed from Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee, widely embraced the war's remembrance.
In 2011, President Barack Obama issued a proclamation urging people to observe the anniversary. But he didn't set up a federal commission to oversee events, and congressional efforts to do so died in committee. Many states, citing the poor economy, slashed budgets for commemorations.
In Ringgold, Ga., a town of about 3,600 in Georgia's mountains about 90 miles northwest of Atlanta, town leaders, local companies and Civil War buffs raised about $120,000 in 2008 for a bronze statue of little-known Confederate Major Gen. Patrick Cleburne. He won the Battle of Ringgold Gap on Nov. 27, 1863, and some in town hoped the statue, the anniversary and Ringgold's location near Interstate 75 would draw tourists.
Mr. Dodson says the statue and anniversary did little for his store, North Georgia Relics and Metal Detectors, started seven years ago. Today he makes most of his money selling metal detectors over the Internet, many to people looking for gold or objects unrelated to the Civil War, he says.
At the small park where the Cleburne statue stands, no one came to visit on a recent weekday morning until Dave Van Dyke, 63, a retired factory worker who lives outside of town, parked his pickup to eat a breakfast burrito. Asked if he knew anything about Gen. Cleburne, he shrugged: "Not really."
According to Mr. Van Dyke, every spring, when area farmers turned over their fields, "You used to see people looking for Civil War stuff with metal detectors. I haven't seen them out there in years."
Link to the original article on the Wall Street Journal: Click Here.
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