What happened to the 1st. Confederate Division

[captdougofky]

I have been reenacting for ten years plus and have been to 4 or 5 National Events with them in charge of the C.S. side now they are called Army of Tenn.

Doug
Lyons Battery
1st. Ky. Vols.
C.S.

[indguard]

There was a parting of ways over direction. A few groups wanted to edge toward stricter authenticity and a few said they weren't ready for that with some of their individual companies of their battalions. So a split occurred. When the dust settled, the 1st C.S. Div renamed itself the AOT.

Some were just more able to try for strict authenticity than others. We are all at different levels in this hobby of ours, after all, and to try and get thousands of guys all on the same authenticity level proved to be rather difficult. It is apparent that it is easier to do with smaller groups.

I think that is why the "hardcore" movement is able to do it with the higher standards as they aim at smaller groups of guys who are already all on the same page.

You will see the new AOT at Perryville this year on Oct. 7th and 8th alongside the groups that split away from the 1st C.S. Div. Come on out, you'll enjoy it.

So, the New AOT is doing strong and well and its commander, Gen. Mike Moore, is commanding the field at Perryville.

Warner Todd Huston

[ley74]

Wait and watch. The Great Pumpkin will also visit a number of larger organizations in the next year. Fact is, it does not need to occur. Fact is, the lack of flexability simply serves to drive folks off instead of co-existing.

[Silas]

Fact is, the lack of flexability simply serves to drive folks off instead of co-existing.

Are folks at the bottom end of the reenacting spectrum entitled to do the samo-samo at every event they attend without making any effort to conform to minimal event standards at better events? To me, that sounds inflexible and rude.

Standards differ between what is acceptible at the local county fair and what is appropriate at a battle reenactment which occurs on the same ground where the actual battle occurred. Maybe I'm being inflexible for thinking it's not okay to bring Grade-C kit and attitude to Grade-A events, or that others must suffer the intolerance of militant farbs who just don't get a clue.

Others mileage obviously varies.

Silas Tackitt,
Pacific Nor'west Boo-bird

[indguard]

...or that others must suffer the intolerance of militant farbs who just don't get a clue.

Ah, I always find it amusing when a militant calls OTHERS militants!



Still, Tackit is correct to say that we all don't have to "get along" necessarily. There is a reason that some of the ultra hardcore only do their own events and won't go to a mainstream event. They are perfectly within their rights to do so, too.

I will also say that we have those same ultra hardcore folks to thank for our continued understanding of the material culture of the era we all love so much. Without them we would surely still be in Sears work shirts and engineer boots with trapdoor Springfields!

WTH

[Silas]

Still, Tackit is correct to say that we all don't have to "get along" necessarily. There is a reason that some of the ultra hardcore only do their own events and won't go to a mainstream event. They are perfectly within their rights to do so, too.

WTH, you’re twisting my words. Folks at the higher end of the spectrum would get along much better with folks at the lower end if the latter would recognize they need to be flexible, too.

The old FCD, now AoT, does one event per year. A minimum standard was drafted and approved by vote of battalion and brigade commanders at a yearly meeting of the old FCD. The standard wasn’t very high, but it still created a quantifiable bench march. People thought it was just fine until Gen. Moore said it was time to commence enforcing the standard. (The Fiasco called Franklin gave him major heartburn.) Then people went postal about the unfairness of this “new” standard.

This was the beginning of the Battle for Blue Britches.

1862 was a banner year for the ANV. McClellan and Burnside were whipping boys for Gen. Lee. With victories came captured clothing. Blue pants were not an unusual sight in the ranks of the ANV.

The hapless AoT, which covered substantially more territory than the ANV, didn’t get a substantial victory until September, 1863. Opportunities to capture clothing in 1862 were rare. Stores were captured at Iuka, Mississippi, but there was no contemporaneous report of the famed blue pants being captured. There were several contemporaneous writings of new, blue, jean trousers being issued to AoT troops after the Corinth and Perryville campaigns. If the battles being portrayed occurred before the reports of newly issued clothing, the issuances become irrelevant.

Union stores, which included kersey trousers, were captured by Cleburne’s demi-division during the Perryville campaign. This always becomes a cited at a reason why it is okay to wear “sky blue pants” at Perryville. Proper kersey trousers are perfectly acceptable at Perryville if troops in his demi-division are being portrayed. Speaking as a person involved in the scenarios planned for this year’s Perryville reenactment, the brigades constituting demi-division are not being portrayed. Accordingly, it’s still inappropriate for Confederate troops to wear sutler grade, “sky blue pants” or properly constructed kersey trousers.

Despite Cleburne’s troops not being portrayed at this year’s reenactment, I guarantee you’ll see troops, who are not affiliated with Gen. Moore’s AoT, wearing “sky blue pants” because Cleburne’s troops had ‘em. That’s really sad. People like me will be considered inflexible for getting in people’s faces because THEY were inflexible about conforming to known standards.

Gen. Moore’s policy is pretty simple: for the one large event per year where he commands, conform to the impression of the soldiers being portrayed at that one reenactment.

This doesn’t mean that you cannot use your sky blues or wall tents at other events. Just don’t bring them to this one event per year. For all the howling, you’d think we were trying to steal people’s babies or uproot the remains of our sacred grandfathers who fought in the war. Do what they did for one weekend of the year.

Moore’s AoT is an upper level mainstream organization. Asking people to conform to a recognized standard for one event isn’t asking too much. If you want a large event where anything goes, attend one of the annual fests at Cedar Creek.

Perryville isn’t Rich Mountain. The minimum standard for what is acceptable at Perryville is lower than what is acceptable for Rich Mountain. Not everyone can do events like Rich Mountain, an immersion event where standards are high. Gen. Moore isn’t asking his entire command to tailor its impression to meet the exact standard the few regiments being portrayed at that location at point in time as is occurring at Rich Mountain. He’s got a general impression for that entire army during the three middle years of the war. There’s a lot more wiggle room in the impression standard for Moore’s AoT than there will be for Rich Mountain.

It’s okay that not everyone wants to do or can do an event like Rich Mountain. However, I have a problem with militant, vocal farbs who insist upon wearing sutler grade, sky blues to every event they attend and upon dragging all the trappings of home to stash in their commodious wall tents with the standard front porch, tent fly. Why does this vocal minority think the upper to middle spectrum must always bend to their needs? Why can’t they bend to the needs of the majority who are making an effort to reenact the past, not the past reenactment?

Let’s talk about “hardcore” and “ultra hardcore” for just a minute. For the overwhelming majority of people in this hobby, there’s nothing hard about eating from your haversack or going without a tent or cot for a weekend, but some make it sound like its an impossible task. We are a soft generation of Americans. Lacking the luxuries of modern life seems barbaric by present standards.

When the hardcore word is spoken by people in the mid to lower spectrum of the hobby, it is typically used as a swear word. I’m reminded of the saying that the nail which stand up gets hammered down. That word is a hammer which bludgeons people who are trying to do things right by people who know they are not doing things right. “Do what we do or leave” is what that word means. Most people are reluctant to leave their friends so they conform to the group standard - for a while.

In many arguments about “hardcore” reenacting, the topic stoops to lice and dysentery. No, no one wants to reenact lice and dysentery. So, if you cannot do that, you cannot completely live as a CW soldier for a weekend. Cannot Conform Completely becomes an excuse for anything goes. There’s an awful lot you CAN do in conforming to what was actually done without ending up in the hospital for a week. Leaving the blue pants at home is one of those things one can do without endangering one’s health.

Silas Tackitt,
Boo-bird

[Footslogger]

Hear Hear, well said that man, If folk can't or won't conform to laid down event minimum standards, stay at home I say and don't louse it up for everyone else that makes the effort to conform.

[MStuart]

I don't have a dog in this hunt, but since this is somewhat of a public forum and the repartee between the "factions" (for lack of a better word) has been ongoing for some time, in public mind you, I'll ask the following:

Just what is the source of the bad blood between WTH and Mark/AoT staff?

We've all been entertained by the back and forth between them, but no one has come out and thrown the entire basket of dirty laundry into the open for the rest of us to muse over. I figure if you're gonna go back and forth on the forum, we all may as well know what it's all about. Rather than have 700 of us speculate, let us all in on it.

Mark

[HighPrvt]

I have to agree with Mark. it erks me to see reenactors with federal trousers, modern glasses,etc. Yet have the money to buy A-frame, giant cooler, inflateable bed.........
However I don't blame them. I blame their company comanders. most units have some sort of standards, yet they seem unwilling to enforce them.
Hopefully this will be minimized at Perryville.

[Silas]

Just what is the source of the bad blood between WTH and Mark/AoT staff?

He and I have publicly crossed swords in the past, but I don't feel like we're fightin' or there is any bad blood. We've worked out our differences.

I mentioned him by initials in my response because I didn't want my words twisted. If what I wrote in my response has been construed as an attack upon him in any way, shape or form, please reread my remarks as there was no intent on my part to attack him.

His remarks were just a vehicle for me to discuss the other side of the coin in the inflexibility argument noted by someone else.

Silas Tackitt