In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

228 Michael Conlin 9 : Teaching the Past’s Perspective of the Past CIvIl War reenaCtors In ConneCtICut I n the novel Meet John Trow by Thomas Dyja, the protagonist, Steven Armour, gets roped into joining a living history organization portraying the Second Connecticut Heavy Artillery. At an event, he and another Union soldier named “Lummer” engaged with a young spectator. A boy of six or seven shook Lummer’s canteen. The old man leaned over. “You know, son, slavery wasn’t really the cause of the Civil War; it was states’ rights. No one cared about slavery; the men of the Second fought to preserve the Union. They don’t teach that nowadays.” Steven’s stomach turned. As much as the men of the 2nd knew about their weapons, the history of the regiment, and the War in general, the lives of soldiers and the movements of the War, so too did many profoundly misread the larger movements of history. He walked over. “Son, I for one am completely in favor of emancipation of the African.”1 Dyja’s fictional dialogue involving two reenactors and a child raises two critical questions about Civil War reenactors in Connecticut, and the “hobby” overall. First, what does the public learn from reenactors (or “living historians,” as some prefer to be called) when they attend battle reenactments and living history events? This includes those portraying soldiers as well as civilians. The second question is closely related to the first. How, or to what extent, do reenactors’ opinions about the Civil War mesh with those of academic historians? The public engages with American history, including the Civil War, in myriad ways. They learn about their past in school, to be sure, but films, documentaries, popular media, and public demonstrations like those in which reenactors participate influence the public long after their seventhgrade u.s. history class, which is often little more than a footnote in their Teaching the Past’s Perspective of the Past : 229 lives. In particular, Civil War reenactors have been educating the public for decades. The practice began in the 1800s and became more popular with America’s centennial celebration in the early 1960s.2 Today, reenactors engage the public in Connecticut and around the country in battle reenactments both large and small, as well as in local, living history presentations. Reenactors may know a great deal about the Civil War from an experiential encampment perspective and may certainly be well-read, yet they are not professionally trained in historical methodology and rarely know the wider historiography of Civil War studies. In other words, historians know what other scholars have written over a long period of time, regarding many facets of the war, and have been trained to critically analyze the arguments. Still, academic historians rarely engage the public in ways that draw the kinds of sizable audiences that reenactors have the opportunity to influence. Hundreds and often thousands will attend Civil War encampments and spend time speaking with these living historians of the war period. Who, then, has the greater influence on the public’s perception of the war?3 Considering that reenactors have the potential to be more influential than all but the most well-known academic historians, it is important to know what reenactors focus on when they teach the public. This includes their opinions on the causes of the war, the motivations of soldiers of the period, and other relevant topics. Is there a divide between the reenactors who engage the public, and historians who research and write professionally about the Civil War? Is what the public learns from attending reenactments and/or living history events “accurate” in terms of modern scholarship on the Civil War? Civil War reenactors are a diverse lot, and even when a study is focused on a relatively small geographic area like Connecticut, one finds a kaleidoscope of opinions. The totality of the evidence though, sheds some light on these issues. On balance, Civil War reenactors in Connecticut, including those who portray both Union and Confederate, present a version of the Civil War that has more in common with the academic scholarship of fifty years ago than with the scholarship of today. Moreover, just as the scholarship prevalent during the Civil War centennial contains both strengths and weaknesses, so to do the reflections of Civil War reenactors in Connecticut . Connecticut reenactors focus heavily on the military side of the war (which should come as little surprise), with a secondary emphasis on the contributions...

Share