Questions for the 150's

[CameronsHighlander]

I know its early but we have two years till the 150th Annaversery events. So I am going to Ask opinions of things we would most like to see, though most may not be possible?

1) The Battle of the Crater with the explosion. (most unlikely, but come on admit it you really want to see and hear that explosion Union or Confederate Cold Mountain wasn't enough)

2) Full Scale Pickets Charge including the Artillery Duel. (We will need some on it Pittsburgh to tell us if it's right)

3) River Boats at Shiloh. (this could be doable but wont likely happen)

4) Trains at 1st Manassas/ Bull Run. (I would love to Jump off an train and go into battle)

5) Miller Cornfield, Sunken Road, Lower Bridge, and West Woods at Antietiam. (The Bridge and Woods would need to be underway Already. The Cornfield could be planted in the Spring so it looks full grown by fall but we need weather. Sunken Road would need to be dug.)

[bob 125th nysvi]

Full Scale Pickets Charge including the Artillery Duel. (We will need some on it Pittsburgh to tell us if it's right)

the NPS just letting us do it once on the real battlefield.

Big problem is that it isn't realistic to expect that to happen. Even if they did the number of reenactors who'd want to participate would just swamp the actual numbers who participated in the battle.

Be the first time we ever had that problem, eh?

[3rdUSRedleg]

2) Full Scale Pickets Charge including the Artillery Duel. (We will need some on it Pittsburgh to tell us if it's right)

Nice thought, but not possable unless you are thinking to actually kill people with the artillery.
To get the correct sound levels of the ordnance you must use full charges behind actual iron ordnance rounds.
Big Big Big difference in that sound then at a reenactment!

[Thad Gallagher]

1) The Battle of the Crater with the explosion. (most unlikely, but come on admit it you really want to see and hear that explosion Union or Confederate Cold Mountain wasn't enough)

-Hopefully it would more dramatic and eventful than the one they "blew" at the 125th. The crater totaled about 5 inches deep at the lowest point.


3) River Boats at Shiloh. (this could be doable but wont likely happen)

-That would be pretty awesome to see happen.

I would like to see a true around the clock reenactment done. Battle ends, sleep where you are, field hospitals going, guards put out, go out and look for wounded/dead pards, etc, etc, etc.

I would also like to do a good trench warfare reenacrment. Be in there the whole event, not just a scenario or two. Haven't done that since the above mentioned Petersburg. We were in there for 4 days. There have been other events with works, but on a smaller scale, and we were only in them for a day.

[indguard]

Even if they did the number of reenactors who'd want to participate would just swamp the actual numbers who participated in the battle.

I think I disagree with that. In two more years hence we won't have that many still in the hobby. It think the last large Gettysburg we'll see for a long time happened last year.

Hope I am wrong, though.

WTH
The We'reNeverGonnaMakeIt mess

[OVI]

I think I disagree with that. In two more years hence we won't have that many still in the hobby. It think the last large Gettysburg we'll see for a long time happened last year.

Hope I am wrong, though.

WTH
The We'reNeverGonnaMakeIt mess

I have heard many older veteran reenactors who dont do much anymore state that they will do the 150th GB just to say they were there. With all those old geezers (me included Im afraid), it will be more like Picketts Shuffle. The internet in July 2013 will be filled with emails and postings of all the guys who had heart attacks there.

Kent Dorr - Winter Quarters in Ohio
"Devils Own Mess"

[Colonel Dave]

Full scale Picketts Charge at the 130th.
The cornfield and sunken road at Antietam.
The simulation of gunboats at Shiloh with artillery firing intermittently off in the distance.

Heart attack, heck, been there, done it. lol

[GrumpyDave]

I would like to see a true around the clock reenactment done. Battle ends, sleep where you are, field hospitals going, guards put out, go out and look for wounded/dead pards, etc, etc, etc.

Don't take offense, but, for the most part, these are the only events some folks ever attend, myself included. They're generally smaller but, more history heavy. You can find them listed from time to time, here on this forum and all the time on the Authentic Campiner Website. The last two I attended were held on original ground (Glendale-Malvern Hill and Slaughter Pen Farm) owned by the CWPT. You need to try out one of the "Death Marches." Underadvertised and always first rate. Come on out, we'll at least cook you before we eat you.





the NPS just letting us do it once on the real battlefield.

IMHO, It's sorta' like r'nacting in a cemetary. Just imagine 10,000+ participants going potty, digging fire pits, tossing beer cans and parking their cars in the Rose Woods, the Codori Farm, or on on Laurel Hill, right where all those poor fellers' breathed their last. I can understand why they don't allow it, having seen what I've seen happen at some of the "mega" events, first hand as a participant and as a spectator. I do understand, in almost all cases, there's not enough room on leased ground and, in almost all cases, you have to stretch your imagination to make the leased ground match the "real" ground(Insert many other words here, in place of the word "ground".).

What would the addition of "static" camps do to the fields the NPS does so much to preserve(and constantly scream they need money to preserve)? Imagine driving vehicles through Millers Corn Field, Chinn Ridge, Henry House Hill, the Wheatfield, the Mule Shoe, The Widdow Higgerston Farm, the "Lee to the Rear" field or Saunders Field so you can unload your stuff. OK, so you lease property off the NPS site for the camps, if it's at all possible, how many units would/could walk the distance necessary, to get to their starting point for a said scenerio. Take Gettysburg for example,(because so many are familiar with the lay of the land), The nearest you could get Federal Troops to the 2nd/3rd days fields would be on the back side of the Round Tops and Confederate camps, out around the Eisenhower Farm. How do you get troops to the first day's fields? I'd guess it's a mile or waaaay more to the 2nd/3rd day sites alone. How do you get water and sanitary facilities on to the NPS property for 10000+ participants?

I can recall, every one of the scenerios listed in the first post, have been done, and since 2000. Is that correct? Bhuler? Bhuler? Bhuler?(The Rail Road cars from the movie "Gettysburg" are still 'round, I hear)


The opportunities are out there, you just have to find them. Nothing that hasn't been typed on a forum over, and over , and over, and over a bizillion times, won't be typed on this thread. And, posting it here does no good. E-mail event organizers. Tell them about your "wish list". I'm sure someone will sell tickets to it. Contact Mr. Chris Anders. See what he's got going on in the future. I hear he does a pretty good job of giving participants at events he "puts on" what they want to see.

AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.

Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:

But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,

But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;

They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.

But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)

Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;

But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true

That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.

That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,

As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will bum,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
Rudyard Kipling


Synical today, blunt today,

[reddiamond]

I do not think that we'll have the numbers in the hobby that we did this cycle.
The quality has gone down and will continue to sink while commanders allow more and more exceptions just to fill their ranks with warm bodies.

If the events are preservation-based. I'll go. If they are blatant money changer events I'll stay home.

Reenactors always wish to go to the "big" events, regardless of the fact that they are only big if people chose to attend. If you choose to go somewhere else, they cease to be big.

AHT or GAC? If more chose to go to the smaller event it would have been bigger. Then again, I liked the numbers being smaller. The event standards worked to keep the trash out.

Scot Buffington

[Pete K]

We wouldn't hear it in Pittsburgh, we're still cheering for the Steelers