eric's little black star » My first West Coast Civil War Reenactment

eric on Jun 20th 2010 at 7:46 am Around Washington,Civil War

My first West Coast Civil War Reenactment – Port Gamble 2010

Back east, one of my favorite summer time things was going to Civil War reenactments. Sure, they’re often silly, completely inaccurate and full of scary right wing/borderline racist politics, but they were also taken seriously by many who attended, very historically accurate by some and contained zero modern day politics if done for the right reasons.

I was able to ignore all the bad and focus on the good for a lot of the time. Besides, they had hand cooked kettle corn. If that’s bad, I don’t want to know what good is.

But that was the east coast. I knew there were reenactments on the west coast, but dared not venture out to one. That is, until this weekend.

A gal at the print shop and her boyfriend are into reenacting (and also play in a metal band). We were invited and accepted. This is the biggest event of the year for them.

“The West” in Civil War Reenacting circles is generally Missouri and Tennessee. The actual West isn’t really considered. And Pacific Northwest is barely a footnote. It’s like an island out there. A very under populated island.

Anyway, this event was their biggest and there were maybe 300 reenactors total (in uniform). That would qualify as a pretty small event back east. But back east is where the history is, so I get that. I was actually surprised that there’d be this many reenactors here.

I took a few pictures (30ish) and you can check them out here… It’s a bit different this time, I did it as a slide show (you can undo that too, if you like).

And now that you’ve done that, let me move on.

I used to be a reenactor, portraying Union artillery. I liked firing the cannon, of course, but really disliked just standing around wearing something blue. I wanted to go as Confederate infantry, but never really got around to it.

See, my “problem” is that if I’m going to do this, if I’m going to shell out the cash to buy the uniform and gun, etc etc etc, I want to do it right. Very right. If I’m portraying the 26th North Carolina, I want to research exactly what that unit wore. Which uniforms were they issued? Which period of the war would we be portraying, which guns did they use? How about hats, vests, shoes, shirts? These are all just as important as knowing the history of the war, the battles, the regiment, etc. If you look as authentic as possible and you act as authentic as possible, it makes the whole experience much more enjoyable to you as well as the spectators.

So if I were to get back into “the hobby” (as it’s called), I’d want to do it very right. However, from what I saw yesterday, most folks aren’t really doing that so much. That’s fine, to each their own. To do this, you kind of need a friend so you don’t stand out as the jerk who’s trying to be better than everybody else. That’s really not why I’d be doing it. I’d be doing it because if I’m going to drop the coin on such a thing, I’d like to buy the right stuff (rather than just wearing something blue or gray).

There’s not a whole lot of units to join up with. There are zero Virginian regiments in Washington, but there is the 26th North Carolina. Thankfully, much research has already been done for their uniforms. In Oregon, there’s a 4th Virginia company that’s doing their best to be more focused on historical accuracy. I like that, but it might be a bit too far to travel for events.

Ideally, I should be back east for this. But I’m not. If I want to do this, I’ll have to do it here. Could be fun and interesting. I’m still considering it. We shall see.

10 responses so far

10 Responses to “My first West Coast Civil War Reenactment – Port Gamble 2010”

Ryan Beggar says:

June 20, 2010 at 8:22 am

Washington Civil War reenactment: “Oh shit we gotta get to Tennessee!” *march march march*

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Ryan Beggar says:

June 20, 2010 at 8:23 am

NY Civil War reenactment: “Ha, Ha! You never made it to us!”

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Mark says:

June 20, 2010 at 9:05 am

Ah… the Civil War… interesting group of people that assemble their. Hope you find the gear that you need to portray the unit you are emulating…

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Scott says:

June 20, 2010 at 10:06 am

Ironic that it occurred on Juneteenth. Though if there were ever a day to remember the war on, it’s yesterday. At least for Texans.

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eric says:

June 20, 2010 at 10:41 am

Yeah, we don’t really do the Juneteenth thing up here. Or up north at all. But it was a fun little battle anyway.

It is an interesting group of people. Some are really nice folks, of course. Actually, most are. Just stay away from the modern politics (which have no place in the 1860s anyway).

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eric says:

June 20, 2010 at 10:42 am

Some of the guys are planning on going to the 150th anniversary of Manassas. Yep, it’s 150 already. Crazy. Seems like yesterday. teehee

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Thomas says:

June 20, 2010 at 11:48 am

The ones I’ve been to in Texas have always included an “educational” preface where they explain that the Civil War was really all about protecting individual liberties and “states’ rights.” To hear them tell it, slavery was just something Yankees made up to make us look bad.

But once we get past that obligatory bit of Wierdness, we’ve always had a good time- and it sounds like you did, too.

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eric says:

June 20, 2010 at 12:14 pm

Folks have been arguing about why the war was being fought even during the war. It’s no surprise that they still are. Slavery was a huge part of it, but for common folks actually doing the fighting, it wasn’t really an issue since they didn’t own slaves. The governments on both sides had to think of clever ways to get poor people to fight. They still do it today. :)

The weirdness is definitely there in reenacting. And even at dumpy events (not that this was one – it wasn’t) I’d have some fun.

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ALAN says:

June 21, 2010 at 7:14 am

Eric, I like your point made about wars (clever ways to get folks to join up)–Anyway, I used to love the battle reenactments of the January 8, 1815, Battle of New Orleans fought between the US and Britain in Chalmette Battlefield, New Orleans–went every year, always made it my class field trip. This reenactment would last three to four days and the actor who portrayed Andrew Jackson could have been his twin;he would never leave character and even wounded himself in the same places where “Old Hickory” had scars,his forehead and left-hand. (I remember seeing him looking completely bewildered once at a plane flying overhead.) I love stories about this battle, pirates (Jean Lafitte and his men) were even fighting alongside US forces, according to legend–plenty of Indians, as well.

Port Gamble is a funny little town, isn’t it? As an old mill town, it has quite a bit of history in it’s own right.

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eric Reply:
June 21st, 2010 at 8:15 pm
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a War of 1812 reenactment. I know the Rev War folks get REALLY into it. That’s pretty cool. And I love the subtly of the Andrew Jackson guy and the airplane. That’s just art. Very cool.

Port Gamble is a weird town. I’m still not sure how I feel about it, but they host a pretty good reenactment. It kind of reminds me of Salem or some little New England town.

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