Reenacting In The Centennial Years

[Ken]

Re: Reenacting In The Centennial Years

By the way, for you younger guys who missed out on those great Centennial Years (remember everything including the toys was CIVIL WAR) here, in my opinion, was the greatest Civil War toy a boy could get for Christmas at that time. By the way, that little record in the lower left part of the picture provided those cool sound effects you needed to recreate the battle including gun shots, the sound of cannons, and yes even someone doing the Rebel yell. The two white figures in the upper right of the picture are Grant and Lincoln. I believe they also gave you two white figures of Lee and Davis. The bridge they are crossing is suppose to be the Burnside bridge. The mansion in the background was made out of tin with a lithograph printing of the bricks, windows and door on it. You had to bend the walls and assemble it. This was very typical of the structures provided with these Marx playsets in those years.

[Old Reb]

Re: Reenacting In The Centennial Years

In 1963, learning from TV and magazines that the war was actually over and the nation was celebrating it having been over 100 years us Southern boys decided to educate a yankee fellow who had moved recently to our town. He seemed normal enough, except for his funny way of talking and said he was from New York. We knew our geography and New York meant a big city where the Yankees played. He tried to educate us that he was from something called “up state New York” and in those parts they actually fished and hunted but we knew there was only New York and it was a city where the Yankees played. Thus, with a real yankee fellow to act as our adversary, and our budding knowledge of the world and history , we invited him to go squirrel hunting with us. Around a camp fire we belittled Yankees and the north and New York City in a good natured way that caused him to squint and spit and wait. We decided that while he slept curled up warmly in the back of the pick up truck we would smear mustard around his lips and then when he awoke he would no doubt cry and we would laugh. The plan didn’t work well for when he awoke, licked his lips, and saw a bunch of yahoos laughing at the tail gate, he grabbed his shotgun, sprang from the bed of the truck and sent us fleeing into the woods as he fired over our heads and let the squirrel shot rain down on us. From then on, we knew that them yankee fellows from up state New York could be mighty fierce if crossed. It was a lesson in human relations and gave us a better understanding what our ancestors had stirred up 100 years before.

[MuleyGil]

Re: Reenacting In The Centennial Years

Back in 1970 I joined a North-South Skirmish group and wanted to also do reenactments. However, one of our members had been a reenactor in the 1960s and he told me about another reenactor at the Battle of Ball's Bluff who was shooting live minie balls into the bluff above his head.

I waited until the 1990s to do reenacting and LHs.

[H. L. Hanger]

Re: Reenacting In The Centennial Years

Of course, one might add the television show circa the same time frame: The Gray Ghost.

And, there were sets of collector's cards, much like today's baseball cards, that were available.

[Dignann]

Re: Reenacting In The Centennial Years

Back in the mid-80's, Steve Sylvia and Mike O'Donnell (publishers of North South Trader), put out a paperback book entitled Civil War Reenactments. It was a picture book of reenacting. As I remember, there was a healthy section on the Centennial and many photos from the reenactments during those years. This thread spurred me to track down a used copy, as I remember destroying my father's copy, by repreatedly flipping through it, as a kid.

Eric

[Dreamer42]

Re: Reenacting In The Centennial Years

John,
Your post incl. the bottom left image, taken I believe at Gettysburg, is the image of which I spoke in my post. I own a few volumes from American Heritage from the mid-60s on the CW. The photos are really good, but artists' renderings are way off the mark. There was little concept of what a real soldier looked like. Comforting to think those events renewed a stirring in the hearts of Americans at that time.

- Jay Reid
9th Texas

[weed]

Re: Reenacting In The Centennial Years

I also have the Life Magazine Civil War Cenntenial Painting Series. I did not think some of them were too bad.

Yes, Johnnie Yuma and his "schatter gun" (remember TV in the '1960's)

I did own the complete set of the Civil War trading cards. To me, they were more important than my younger brother's baseball cards!

I remember leaving the last 10 minutes of "Johnny Shiloh" (I had seen it a number of times) as the local theater was showing a Civil War Movie (so I thought by the previews) Clint Eastwood's, The Good, The Bad And The Ugly". Little did I know, untill they go to the Civil War Part.

How about the TV Series : The Time Tunnell. The Civil War episode was on the Battle of Gettysburg!

Did you guys play "Army"? Everybody but me wanted to be Chip Saunders with a Thopson, I used an original Sharps Carbine.

GREAT TIME TO GROW UP IF YOU LOVED THE CIVIL WAR


ANYTHING REMOTELY CONCERNING THE CIVIL WAR, I ATE UP. The Centenial, what a time to be a Civil War Fanatic!!!!:D

John W

[Chihuahua]

Re: Reenacting In The Centennial Years

Pards:
I am 55 years old, and I remember well the Civil War Centennial of the early 1960s.
I fondly remember.....
* marching off to war with the neighborhood boys wearing black sneakers, rolled-cuff blue jeans, a navy blue corduroy shirt, an old summer bedspread horse-collared over my shoulder, one of those cheap-ass pressed felt kepis (minus the incorrect crossed rifles and the glued-on shield, and carrying my Marx musket that shot cork balls powered by a greenie stick 'em cap.
* a Christmas morning when I opened a huge (then) box containing a deluxe Civil War playset - complete with plastic Burnside Bridge. (I still have my set with most of the pieces.)
* Civil War News bubble gum cards. My mom disliked them because they were really pretty gory - like the one titled "Painful Death" showing a cav trooper who had tumbled upon a section of chevaux-de-frise.
* two Twilight Zone shows with CW themes. One chronicled an anti-Sherman history professor who could not die and had served in the war. The other was the black/white film "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." I'm happy to say I appear (if ever so briefly) in the 2001 version of same.

I guess the child really is father to the man.
Mark Warren
11th Iowa/Hairy Nation

[Rob]

Re: Reenacting In The Centennial Years

Here ya go. Enjoy.

http://www.tradercracks.com/gallery/non-sports/Civil_War_News/

[Ken]

Re: Reenacting In The Centennial Years

Pards:
I am 55 years old, and I remember well the Civil War Centennial of the early 1960s.
I fondly remember.....
* marching off to war with the neighborhood boys wearing black sneakers, rolled-cuff blue jeans, a navy blue corduroy shirt, an old summer bedspread horse-collared over my shoulder, one of those cheap-ass pressed felt kepis (minus the incorrect crossed rifles and the glued-on shield, and carrying my Marx musket that shot cork balls powered by a greenie stick 'em cap.
* a Christmas morning when I opened a huge (then) box containing a deluxe Civil War playset - complete with plastic Burnside Bridge. (I still have my set with most of the pieces.)
* Civil War News bubble gum cards. My mom disliked them because they were really pretty gory - like the one titled "Painful Death" showing a cav trooper who had tumbled upon a section of chevaux-de-frise.
* two Twilight Zone shows with CW themes. One chronicled an anti-Sherman history professor who could not die and had served in the war. The other was the black/white film "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." I'm happy to say I appear (if ever so briefly) in the 2001 version of same.

I guess the child really is father to the man.
Mark Warren
11th Iowa/Hairy Nation

Mark,

I watched the Twilight Zone episode you mentioned in your post just last night. Part of a box set from season one of the show. The proffessor was the actor Kevin MaCarthey who was probalby best remembered for the original Body Snatchers movie of the late 50's early 60's.

[weed]

Re: Reenacting In The Centennial Years

Also a number of Sherman's Bummers ended up as members of The Mudsills, The 1st unit to actually do Civil War Drill from a period manual (School of the Soldier and School of the Company) These included Gary Carpender, Larry Strayer......to name a few (I'm sure Luther Sower did fall in with The Mudsills at times in the early days.

It was NOT until the 1981 "Muddysburg"we were able to do "Battalion Drill. When guys later asked about that event, I did NOT talk about the rain or mud, I I had to say was "We took THE REGIMENT out to drill!!!!!

[Kanawha Riflemen]

Re: Reenacting In The Centennial Years

I know Ross and a few of those guys from when I worked for the Maryland Park Service. Listening to their stories for an article that I wrote about the Centennial were both educational and comical. Taking measurements of Confederate clothing behind glass and trying to come up with patterns for clothing or wearing original Union army surplus before the market boomed for collectors of it was interesting to say. I have a lot of respect for Ross and still talk to him several times a year. He and the others like Charlie and Les were the ones that really improved the authenticity side with research. It's amazing how far authenticity, research, and clothing has come. His stories about the reenactments of Antietam, Manassas, and Wrightsville were very interesting with the National Guard and the reenactors with their Sears clothing was kind of funny.

John A. Miller
Monterey Pass Battlefield Park