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AN EVENING WITH THE NORTH-SOUTH ALLIANCE
By Ike Gatlin
BACKGROUND. In the early 1980's, Reenacting experienced a substantial growth in recruitment spawned by the public's attention to the approaching 125th Anniversary Events. For those of us Blessed to be a part of it during this time, we transitioning from simple School of the Company maneuvers at what were then small events, to the Evolution of the Battalion, Brigade and Division-sized events; which at the high water mark at the 125th Gettysburg Event in 1988 saw scenarios with full scale maneuvering units equal to those engaged in the original battle.
WHAT WAS THE NORTH/SOUTH ALLIANCE? We were there and a part of the tens of thousands of reenactors who organized themselves across the country (military and civilian), by Branch, into Battalions, Brigades, and Divisions to participate in the 125th Events; and who's leadership sustained large-scale Western Theater events by hosting and running them beyond to what ended up into the mid-2000's.
HOW WAS IT FORMED? On Dec 2, 1989, at the 125th Anniversary of the Battle of Franklin, Major General Al Gatlin commanded the 1st Confederate Division, an affiliation of Western Confederates regional units formed to participate in the 125th Events. He asked his Brigade Commanders, Jack King--1st Brigade, myself, Bill Smart-2nd Brigade, and Jay Jackson-3rd Brigade two questions: (1) Would the Brigades form together at the 125th Bentonville Event; and, (2) Was there interest in maintaining our Western Theater Confederate Army beyond the 125th Events; by hosting events in partnership with Western Federal organizations called the 1st Federal Division. Jay Jackson declines and the 3rd Brigade was disbanded after 125th Franklin. King's 1st Brigade and Smart's 2nd Brigade were fielded under the 1st Confederate Division at 125th Bentonville. Then, in partnership with the 1st Federal Division, we sponsored or participated in a series of events following from 1990 to the mid-2000's; all to sustain the experience of large-scale Western Theater military operations in the hobby, provide any monies generated from the events to preservation and to ensure that the event planning was driven to provide the best possible experience for the “rear rank twos” never before had events reached the scale and authenticity throughout the 125th series of events. Many battalions would consistently raise the bar for each of the event scenarios. The North/South Alliance (NSA) stood alone in the amount of dollars raised for preservation. The NSA promoted force scale, requiring “galvanization” to equalize participation, organization of artillery and Calvary into respective commands, required all food vendors donate a portion of their profits to preservation, researched and executed realistic battle scenarios.
AN EVENING WITH THE NORTH-SOUTH ALLIANCE - Join us for an AC Live Stream Open Discussion with the folks who organized and executed the 135th Western cycle of events. We will have an opening session with introductions, a question and answer period closing with any questions from the live audience.
WHEN IS THE LIVE STREAM? Saturday November 17th 2018 AT 6:00 pm EST
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