Eastern or Western Theater?

[Hairy Nation Boys]

Re: Eastern or Western Theater?

We can't all portray the Iron Brigade Andy! :)

[ILYankee5]

Re: Eastern or Western Theater?

After a 5 year hiatus, I am getting 'back' in...I guess I'm a 'Sucker'...literally, Illinois Boy so WESTERNER!!

[KPavia]

Re: Eastern or Western Theater?

Western theater because a 24 hour drive to an original battlefield is my typical limit. As much as I'd love to drive out to Gettysburg or VA on a regular basis, I can only do a 4,000 mile drive in a weekend once every few years.

[cairnsy44]

Re: Eastern or Western Theater?

Western theater because a 24 hour drive to an original battlefield is my typical limit. As much as I'd love to drive out to Gettysburg or VA on a regular basis, I can only do a 4,000 mile drive in a weekend once every few years.

Exactly why I favor Eastern. Vermont is not really close to any original CW battlefield.

[Dbackfed]

Re: Eastern or Western Theater?

I love the early war Eastern battles, but after Gettysburg, I shift back to the West. I have to go with Western Federal and then Western CS.

[AndrewGrim]

Re: Eastern or Western Theater?

Trans-Mississippi or the Confederate city of Los Angeles.

[LibertyHallVols]

Re: Eastern or Western Theater

"Both."

Adding words to make the forum software happy. Seriously, depends on what is being offered and where.

What he said. Seriously...
It depends on the event.
As a research topic, I never get tired of either an both engage my interest.
... as do civilian topics.

[TerryC]

Re: Eastern or Western Theater?

I am a bit late in contributing to this particular thread. Very new to the whole thing, however, Western is my primary interest (though I am willing to cross the river from time to time). Also, the activities of the Missouri state guard and Missouri home guard.

[WV_Reb]

Re: Eastern or Western Theater?

I have only gotten the chance to do Eastern Theater events due to my closer proximity to the major battlefields in the East, and also because the unit I'm in portrays Eastern CS and Eastern Federal. But I would have to say that overall my interests lie in the Western Theater battles, with one major exception- the Overland Campaign in the East. In my opinion, the Overland Campaign featured the most sustained and brutal fighting of the entire war, as evidenced by the 24 consecutive hours of hand-to-hand fighting at the Muleshoe salient at Spottsylvania.

[Eric Tipton]

Re: Eastern or Western Theater?

Since this somehow became a "contentious" debate on our social media feed, I decided that I need to clarify this even a little further.

Any organization wants to understand who its audience is. Over the years, I have asked numerous questions for marketing purposes, such as "which side do you portray", or "which events are you going to attend", or "drawing rammers", or "how long have you reenacted", etc. This question about Eastern or Western Theater is along those same lines and based on this poll, it seems that our audience leans more western. No surprise, exactly. It kind of always has since its inception. Not a judgment. Just the way it has seemed to be.

This being said, I have ALWAYS advocated for east and west to cooperate with each other. I got my start at progressive events out east - McDowell (five times), War on the James, Into the Wilderness and Southern Guard Picket Posts back in the early 2000's. More recently, I attended the Bermuda Hundred event in 2014, the Fredericksburg 150th Event in 2012, Floyd's Folly, Averell's Advance On to Richmond and two Liberty Rifles events - Sailor's Creek and Prelude to Invasion.

Not only have I attended eastern events, I was also part of the planning of two events that were essentially commanded by east and west. Rich Mountain in 2006 and Bummers in 2009.

I have been very encouraged to see a recent rebirth in cooperation between the east and west. There were times in the past where this was not always the case. That always disappointed me because we are stronger when the authentic hobby is a cohesive force. There are eastern units coming west and vice versa. This is what it needs to be. This is how we grow the hobby. It is an exciting time for us as a whole and the cooperation needs to continue and is fully-supported by the AC as you can see on our event schedule.

Historically, we know that there were easterners who traveled west and westerners who traveled east. We also know that there was a friendly rivalry between the east and west. It is documented many times over. It was there when easterners arrived at Chattanooga with their corps badges. It was there at the Grand Review when spectators wanted to see Sherman's boys. It existed between commanders in different theaters as they were moved around to different departments. To say it didn't exist is not historically accurate. I kind of like having friendly rivalries. As long as we cooperate with each other, why not have a little fun with something that is historically accurate?

For me, on a personal level, I have predominantly attended western theater events. My origin in the hobby was with the Sixth Ohio, who were a western theater Federal regiment. I'm sure many of you have the same type of influence. Some of us lean toward one theater or another, mainly because of where we started or just because of the battles that we find most-interesting. My favorite battle is Shiloh. Don't know why exactly. Probably because I admire US Grant and that battle was where he was supremely tested.

Bottom line here with this new post is that I will continue to ask questions such as this to find out more about our membership here. It is valuable to know. By the same token, I have always and will continue to advocate that everyone broadens their horizon by traveling to different events in different parts of the country. I encourage you to diversify your kit for different theaters and by all means, portray both sides. Let's not even get started on that tangent. :)

So, let's expand this question a bit. If you have a preference of one theater over another, what was it that influenced you to reach this conclusion? In other words, how did your background influence your interests?

[NMVolunteer]

Re: Eastern or Western Theater?

Personally, I'd just go with the closest unit regardless of impression, as long as it is the right side. The closest happens to be Trans-Mississippi (Colorado volunteers), which is not too much of a surprise given my location.

[BlueBelly64]

Re: Eastern or Western Theater?

Since I live in Kirby-Smithdom I'll have to vote Trans-Mississippi. :-)

[Abner]

Re: Eastern or Western Theater?

I currently only do western confederate, but I'm hoping to start doing some eastern confederate soon

[Phil McBride]

Re: Eastern or Western Theater?

Western --AOT

[lojafan]

Re: Eastern or Western Theater?

Trans-Miss!