Reliving the Battle of Gettysburg – 150th Anniversary

Union Soldier's Tent

When in school, why did I hate history class with a passion?  Maybe because my teachers were never interested and could have cared less so they just wanted to “get by” in these “boring” lessons by giving us a list of dates to remember. Do I remember any of them – NO! Not to mention, neither do I remember why I was told to remember them.

Now, years later, I can’t seem to get enough of history. I’ve recently been spending hours enthusiastically reading historical novels, mainly based in England beginning with the early 11^th century. But I have to admit my interest in the British history didn’t begin until I lived in the UK and my husband took me to visit various castles and other places of interest.  Other trips included historic sites throughout Europe, Egypt, Africa, Asian countries and Central and South America where even more history suddenly became real for me.



Confederates outnumbered the Union Soldiers

In the last few years I’ve visited Jamestown and Williamsburg but my interest in US history was never really realized and it was only when I spotted a very small article in a Salt Lake City newspaper about the 150^th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg did I take any interest in the Civil War era. The article described reenactments and events that would take place so I immediately began planning a day trip to see live "the single largest and one of the most pivotal military engagements ever to be fought on American soil". Since moving to the US, we’ve never developed any sort of 4^th of July rituals so this seemed to be the perfect day to visit the Gettysburg reenactments.

Cannons shook the ground!

On the morning of the 4^th, although leaving home early we still had to queue two hours to get into the grounds! After just missing the Gettysburg Address by an actor (not Daniel Day-Lewis or I would have been out of the car and walked the final 3 miles to hear him) we just got to the first battle reenactment as it started. Cannons were booming out across the battle ground and right next to the grandstand shaking the grounds. While rifles and muskets fired more deafening volleys continuously, we watched several parts of the battle progress through a smoky haze. I had binoculars and Steve had his long range telephoto lens so we got to see up close how realistic the enactments are!



Part of the Calvary

We were never able to determine the exact number of reenactors, or “living historians” as they prefer to be called, but were told that it was in the range of 15,000. We also learned that there were 400 horses used for the Calvary and I was completely blown away (no pun intended) by the fact that the cannons and rifle fire didn’t bother them one bit. This was the largest battle that any of the reenactors that we spoke to had ever participated in. It was definitely a breathtaking tableau playing out across a huge field, often in a smoke-filled haze. One can only imagine what it must have been like during the battles 150 years ago when the two sides suffered over 50,000 casualties.

Union General

After the first battle, we wandered through a living history village, mainly showing us how the officers lived as well as other people who followed the troops; the military camp, where the front-line soldiers lived; the medical tents, and other activity tents. During the four days of reenactments, quite a few of the historians actually live in the same type of tents, cook on wood fires and live as closely as possible to the way it was 150 years ago. We got a chance to speak at length to one of the reenactors and found out exactly how knowledgeable and passionate these historians are because of the amount of time and cost involved in their participation. This isn’t just a weekend hobby - their passion, dedication to the authenticity of their uniforms, equipment, living arrangements, etc. was just beyond belief! They actually live their characters’ lives four to five times a year.

General Robert E. Lee

We spent the rest of the afternoon going around to activity tents to visit the reenactors and listened to them give their “stories”. We heard all kinds of stories from a woman who was one of the best spies of the Civil War, other stories of women who helped their causes, listened to a band that used 150 year-old instruments and a better band with quite young children (maybe 6-10 year olds) who played drums and the flutes. I’m pretty sure there were children of these ages that were used back 150 years ago too. One of the best was the session with the generals from the south. Steve and I were standing by the entrance to the tent so we were rubbing shoulders with the “brave generals of the south” as they entered and made their way to the stage.

Union re-enforcements

We watched the second battle of the day at 6.30pm. This was close to the actual time of the second battle on July 1^st 1863 and the weather was pretty much the same as well. It was around 90 degrees, humid and I can’t imagine what it would feel like in the wool uniforms worn by both armies. Most of these reenactors had worn their uniforms throughout our 90+ degree temperature day but they still performed beautifully!

If any of you get a chance to visit a reenactment, I’d very highly recommend it. It breathes life into history through sight, sound, smells and the passion that flows through each of these living historians. It doesn’t make a difference what country you are living in, historic scenes that they are playing out has had a direct impact on your life today. Live and breathe it, if only for a day!

There were far too many photos to include in this blog and even with Steve’s telephoto lens, some of them might be a bit hard to see. For those of you who are history buffs, if you’d like to see more photos, click this link: https://picasaweb.google.com/102840684536112573599/Gettysburg?authuser=0&feat=directlink