Need Interviews for History of Reenacting

[davidf]

Dear fellow reenactors,
I am a student at Gettysburg College and a reenactor. Thanks to several of my classes here, I have been inspired to write on the history of Civil War reenacting. So far my research has resulted in some books and probably a couple dozen magazine, newspaper, and scholarly articles. But when you put all this research together, the result is inconsistencies, incomplete information, and sometimes no coverage of particular topics at all. So, to gain this needed information, I thought I would ask on this forum if I could obtain some interviews with reenactors who could give me information on some particular subjects:

-Civil War interest in the late 1940s to 1950s
-The beginnings of the North-South Skirmish Association
-The 1960s Centennials Reenactments (1st Manassas and all the other battles)
-The later half of the 1960s and 1970s increases in accuracy
-The first sutlers in the 1970s and 1980s
-Any information (statistic information primarily, but also any info on how the reenactments went) on the Anniversary reenactments of the battles 125, 130, 135, and 140.
-Reenactor involvement in making “North and South” “The Blue and the Gray” “Glory” “Gettysburg” “Andersonville” “Gods and Generals”
-Information about reenacting in specific regions (am looking for as many as I can get, but am really interested in hearing about the Southwestern, West Coast, the numerous regions in the South, Midwest, Mid Atlantic, New England, and any other regions I forgot).

Any information I can get on any of the topics above through an interview would be appreciated. You can talk about just one of the topics above or on anything that would help with my research into the history of reenacting. The interviews would be through 2-3 emails. Also, if you know anyone not on this forum that could help me out on this, it would be appreciated. Any help is appreciated. I hope to hear back from people soon. Hopefully once I am done gathering research I can write a nice long and deeply detailed article on the history of reenacting.

Also, if anyone is interested, should I post up a list of all the resources I have found so far?

[Rob Weaver]

Re: Need Interviews for History of Reenacting

Sent you a PM

[Bob Steele]

Re: Need Interviews for History of Reenacting

Sent you a PM.

Bob Steele
Fresh Fish

[davidf]

Re: Need Interviews for History of Reenacting

I just want to say that I thank those who quickly responded already. I hope to get plenty more interviews set up though. I really like either the interviews or leads to information you all are giving to me. Thank you and I hope this continues.

[nastt]

Re: Need Interviews for History of Reenacting

Sent you a PM.


nastt
Michael Farnsley
aka Thomas Nast

http://www.bohemianbrigade.com

[Minieball577]

Re: Need Interviews for History of Reenacting

You probably want to contact someone at the North-South Skirmish Association as well. I know several articles about the history of that group have been published, and many of the originals founders still belong or are contactable. try posting something similar to this on their bulletin board at http://www.n-ssa.org/phpbb/

[Ken]

Re: Need Interviews for History of Reenacting

For the Centennial try this web site and contact info

http://wesclark.com/jw/kimmel.html

[BumpusTN]

Re: Need Interviews for History of Reenacting

Sent PM

Scott Bumpus

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Re: Need Interviews for History of Reenacting

Tackling this topic in any type of comprehensive manner will be a herculean task. Good luck.

And to make the task bigger, one can easily argue that Civil War reenacting started perhaps as early as the Civil War itself, and certainly by the 1880s with the veterans' Grand Army of the Republic encampments. Certainly the old boys (very old) doing a reenactment of Pickett's Charge on the Gettysburg battlefield, at the 75th anniversary of the battle (1938), is worth checking out; it's on film, and was attended by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Also, there are some accounts of Civil War soldiers staging sham battles on the home front while the war was still in progress.

[davidf]

Re: Need Interviews for History of Reenacting

I must once again say thank you for the many responses I have now for getting interviews. I would like to thank the following people for interviews/information recieved so far:
Kevin French
Rob Weaver
James Boyle
L. Scott Hanes
John Wickett
Michael Farnsley
Scott Bumpus
Stacy Hampton
Jim Moffet
Kevin O'Beirne
Ken Raia
Chris Hubbard

But I could always use more interviews. I want to have as many as I can get so I can write the most accurate and detailed history I can. Thanks you all once again.

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Re: Need Interviews for History of Reenacting

The history of modern reenacting, back through the early 1970s, should be well-documented in publications like "Camp Chase Gazette", and others, such as "The Civil War News", "Citizens Companion", "Reenactors Journal", "Smoke and Fire News", and "Civil War Historian". Get your hands on back iss ues of those and you'd have some good, citable source material. Certainly not all of those are back to the '70s, but at least CCG is. CC, RJ, and S&FN started in the 1990s (in the case of RJ, it ended in the '90s too). CWN has been around for at least two decades, but started out oroginally as a newspaper with Civil War book reviews; I don't recall when it expanded into covering Civil War news such as preservatoin issues and reenactments, but in the 1990s their reenactment coverage was pretty comprehensive--moreso than was CCG's. I guess among these rags there's also that dump-on-newsprint called "The Civil War Courier", which also sort-of started out the late 1980s or 1990s as a book review, and by the late 1990s, when it was sold from a Buffalo NY owner to Lakeway Publishing, started covering the lower-end of reenacting in earnest.

Needless to say, many local newspapers in the North during the summer months in the 1880s contain news of upcoming, and after-action reports on, GAR encampments and reenactments. Once upon a time I even posted on this forum some accounts of a one or two such encampments/reenactments held near Buffalo, NY in 1884.

[davidf]

Re: Need Interviews for History of Reenacting

Wow, I am still getting many people responding to my request for interviews. A couple of interviews I have sent out have already come back! Once I get some more back, I can start narrowing down what information I am missing. Thank you all again for your help, and I hope to get more people coming in to get interviews.
Also, where can I find a place where I can look at past issues of the Camp Chase Gazette, Watchdog, and other reenactor magazines and papers without having to buy them? I want to get as many articles on reenacting as I can from these.

[davidf]

Re: Need Interviews for History of Reenacting

As I progress farther and farther into my interviews, I am starting to learn who to find and what groups to investigate more. One group that I will definately being doing more research on is the Mudsills. But when I went on their website, there was no email to contact someone, just a web form for recruitment information. Could someone help me with that?

Also, I am in need of interviews with:
-Artillery Reenactors (both sides)
-Cavalry Reenactors (both sides)
-Civilian Reenactors (both sides)
-Confederate Reenactors

Thanks again for all the help!

[Pvt Peck]

Re: Need Interviews for History of Reenacting

I'll send you a PM as I started here in California 30 years ago and may be able to give you a view from the "west". You MUST look into the Sills also Shermans Bummers.

Ted Parrott
"Humbug"

[TKlas]

Re: Need Interviews for History of Reenacting

As I progress farther and farther into my interviews, I am starting to learn who to find and what groups to investigate more. One group that I will definately being doing more research on is the Mudsills. But when I went on their website, there was no email to contact someone, just a web form for recruitment information. Could someone help me with that?

Also, I am in need of interviews with:
-Artillery Reenactors (both sides)
-Cavalry Reenactors (both sides)
-Civilian Reenactors (both sides)
-Confederate Reenactors

Thanks again for all the help!

David,

You should try to get in touch with former Mudsills including either Bill Brewster, Scott Cross, Brian Baird, the Rock Brothers, Bob Braun, Wedeward and others were pivital to that organizations sucess. That list should get you going on the right path.

If you need anything from my end, just let me know.

Tom