the reenactors age

[FriendlyFire104]

I’m doing a survey and am wondering what the average age of a reenactor is.
Thank you



Bob Spellman

[tenfed1861]

Re: the reenactors age

On July 27,I'll be 18.

Cullen,

This is your FIRST WARNING for not signing your post.

http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1034

Scott McKay, moderator
Authentic Campaigner Forums

[Pritchett Ball]

Re: the reenactors age

Well:

My Age is my business, and on July 2nd, I'll have been in business for 45 years!

Kevin Dally
I was 40 when I got into this hobby, mess

[DougCooper]

Re: the reenactors age

As we "vote" on this, it might be useful to discuss life expectancy in the 1860's. Anybody have a good idea on that? Bell Wiley had the average age as 20 and the single largest age group in the army as 18.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: the reenactors age

Hallo Kameraden!

Hmmmmmm. A difficult concept that.

"Life expectancy" is a strange concept that I believe no two experts and reference books quite agree on. My references come from a number of my college anthropology courses (one of my minors, and internships).
While human "life span" (the length of time a human may live) remains constant (other than in the Bible), anthropologists like to ocme up with what was the "expectancy" one could hope to achieve in years based upon all of the factors of "life" such as food supply and nutrition, living conditions, ease or hardness of life, sickness and health and medicine, etc., etc.

For example, "Neanderthal Europe" it was given as 18. Ancient Egypt, 22. Ancient Rome, 25. Colonial America, 35. The Civil War, 40. The turn of the 20th century, 45. And then soaring after WWI.
Of course, different experts and books vary. And Euro-American "values and ranges" are different than Third World countries.

The problem with "life expectancy" is that it is made up. "Life span" is fairly constant- humans simply do not live to be 150 or 175 or 500 years- and I am slightly behind on the life expectancy for American men and women in 2004- 74 and 76?, or so.
That does not mean that there were no "old" people in 1861-1865, obviously no, but the percentage of the "Senior Citizen" population was much smaller.
That does not mean there were now 120 year olds either. (Just fewer of them.)

A few years ago, I did an "informal" study of grave stones and age at death at an 18th century Irish cemetery. The mean age at death was 43. Granted, it was a local Irish community, but the "mean" was higher than the "35" I learned for the period.

My point would be, even though there is not quite universdal agreement among anthrologists- they still use "life expectancy" as a study tool.
But I would add that the "harshness" of life; amount and quality of diet; presence of disease and disease vectors; lack of medical science (how many die from infectious disease in the USA today) or surgery; level and amount of physical work/drudgery needed to make a living; natural disasters and wars; etc., etc., can all affect how "young or how old" a person looks and functions in any modern or past culture.

So, as I was taught- 40 in general America. (And 3 out of 7 children died before age 5)

Curt-Heinrich Schmidt

[Rear Guard]

Re: the reenactors age

Fifty.

Jeff Lawson

[Rmhisteach]

Re: the reenactors age

I am 34 and have been in the hobby since I was 14.

[Spinster]

Re: the reenactors age

Young man! You made no provision for ladies "of a certain age" :wink_smil

Obviously Too Old To Be in This Hobby Mess,

[Possum Skinner]

Re: the reenactors age

Doug,

It was documented in the Dec. Issue of Civil War Times that the average age of the Confederate soldier was 26. Now I am not refuting their eveidence or certainly that of Mr. Wiley's, just pointing out that I have heard numerous "facts" about age and averages. I would like to see someone take the records and truly look at this. If you only took one unit, or a couple, as a sampling, you could really get some skewed data. The average age in 1861 vs. 1864/65 when conscription really changed the demographics for some.

I have done extensive research on my own ancestors, but not taken the full records and examined unit ages. Here are theirs as a reference point.

Name regiment date of enlist age at enlist

E.M. Thomas 60th Alabama Infantry 5/3/1862 24

J.L. Darsey 59th Alabama Infantry 4/31/1862 38 died 1863

J.W. Dunnam 47th Alabama Infantry 5/13/1862 34 died 1862

J.S. Ogletree 60th Alabama Infantry 5/3/1862 42

B.F. Harry 46th Georgia Infantry 5/4/1862 33 died 1862

M.J. McWhorter 53 Ala Partisan Rangers 7/28/1862 25

Caleb Jones 14th Alabama Infantry 6/13/1861 23 KIA 1862

C.G.W. Bence 36th Georgia Infantry 1/15/1862 36 infirm 1863

I.C. Whaley 1st Alabama Infantry 4/14/1861 16

Only one baby out of the whole caboodle. The rest were mostly already married men with children. A couple who had sons old enough to enlist as well. Granted almost all of the ones over 30 died of disease, or were seriously debilitated by 1864. J.S. Ogletree is the one exception, but he was a teamster and not a regular foot soldier. So it would seem plausible that your age at enlistment correlated with your life expectancy as a solider. An over 30-35 year old did not seem have as good a chance after real campaign work began.

It would seem from my little sampling that the younger you were, the better your chances of surviving the war. So 1861/1862 data would show more older men, while death, disease, and conscription would show younger ones in 1864/1865 as an average.

I have never spent much time looking at Union men, so I don't know what the call would be there.

[PrettyBoyDonovan]

Re: the reenactors age

I'm 19 but look older, especially with a beard. I've been mistaken for 30 on more than one occasion.

I can tell you that my unit has gotten very young over the past year. I used to be the youngest guy in my unit, but now am one of the veterans. Unfortunatley the younger guys look exactly that, young. I'm worried that we start to look too young. It's just that a bunch of bady-faced 15 year-olds dosen't look as good as a bunch of rough and dirty mid twenty somethings.

So I'd say the average age in my unit is the mid-30's, but a lot of the new recruits are around 14-16.

[Andrew Jarvi]

Re: the reenactors age

Gentlemen,
I am 28, which for who I am portraying is a good age. I researched the officers of the 5th US Colored Troops and most of our officers were in the mid to late 20's.

After seeing this posting I pulled out the original regimental rost for the 5th USCT and proceeded to count those men 30 - 39, 40 - 49 and 50 + at their time of enlistment. Here are my results:

30-39: 156 NCO & privates
40-49: 70 NCO & privates
50-59: 3 NCO & privates

I then went back to see how long they made it through their service, mind you the regiment started forming June of 63 but didn't leave Camp Delaware til Nov. of 63. Only a handfull of these men were mustered out due to illness or disease. Many were mustered out with the regiment in Sept of 65 or when their terms of service expired.

This is an interesting topic, we might be really suprised at the health of men 30 and up.

Respectfully,
Andrew Jarvi
Capt. 5th USCT

[Eric Burke]

Re: the reenactors age

I agree fully with Donovan on the younger-looking reenacting community recently, but being only 16 years of age I don't have a whole lot of room to talk. The more youthful guys I see in period photos though, the more I feel that perhaps the reenacting community is sometimes too old. Of course, authentic reenacting in particular takes a level of discipline, dedication, and maturity thats often difficult to get a younger individual to subscribe to.

On another note ... my ggg grandfather enlisted in a combat unit as a full combatant when he was 15 years of age (1862) and fought at Atlanta when he was only 17.

[kemper_rifles]

Re: the reenactors age

I'm 20.

Hope I die before I get really old mess

[marlin teat]

Re: the reenactors age

While I really respect Wiley's contributions, it must be remembered that his data was collected a half century ago and a lot of the actual research was done by his grad students while at Emory University. We have no real idea of their methodology. Was it random sampling? If so, what were their sample groups? Did they include state troops (Ga. State Line, etc.), militia, and Home Guard? Was it based on an average over four years or just a spot in time? Early, mid, or late war? Eastern, western, trans-Mississippi, or all?

All of these factors can skew the results.

[LindaTrent]

Re: the reenactors age

So, as I was taught- 40 in general America. (And 3 out of 7 children died before age 5)

The following information came from the University of Michigan Making of America Site, from a book entitled, *Report on the Vital Statistics of the United States, Made to the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, 1857.*

... average life expectency of certain occupations, the following table is from Boston, the years 1843 to 1854:

No. Profession Age

9698 Agriculturists 47.16
29 Artists 40.10
11 Bank Officers 62.72
688 Blacksmiths 51.41
124 Butchers 49.63
198 Cabinetmakers 47.04
1498 Carpenters 49.33
234 Clergymen 56.61
437 Clerks 33.73
286 Coopers 58.84
263 Gentlemen 63.83
21 Glass Blowers 39.86
111 Hatters 54.90
7 Judges & Justices 67.19
92 Jewelers 42.56
6410 Laborers 44.57
171 Lawyers 56.60
363 Machinists 37.63
313 Manufacturers 44.30
359 Masons 41.61
408 Mechanics 42.88
816 Merchants 52.06
69 Millers 61.58
50 Musicians 40.46
260 Operatives 34.19
368 Painters 42.10
356 Paupers 65.19
322 Physicians 55.25
129 Printers 36.55
80 Ropemakers 55.95
2299 Seamen 45.99
238 Shipwrights 56.48
2436 Shoemakers 43.66
194 Stonecutters 43.66
287 Tailors 42.51
175 Tanners & Curriers 47.37
648 Traders 46.53
95 Weavers 46.83

Of these 33,580 individuals the combined ages amounted to 1,724,031 years, or 51.34 years to each man.

A portion of the females who died during the same time, admit of the following classification:--

Domestics 43.96
Dressmakers 32.36
Housekeepers 51.15
Milliners 35.53
Nurses 54.61
Operatives 27.69
Seamstresses 41.83
Shoebinders 45.59
Straw-braiders 35.09
Tailoresses 40.63
Teachers 28.70

The aggregate ages of the 2,376 females thus given, amounted to 109,724, and the general average of the whole gives 50.39 years to each individual."

Linda Trent
lindatrent@zoomnet.net