Why do people reenact the civil war

Civil War reenactments actually began during the Civil War itself as a way for soldiers to commemorate their friends and educate others about war. The modern version of the reenactments, however, took off in the s around the time of the Civil War Centennial. Some of the largest reenactments involve tens of thousands of participants and draw thousands of spectators.

Scott says Whistling Dixie is not him trying to take a jab at the participants. Instead, it's principally a visual exploration of the beauty and incongruity of the events. Some of the other pictures, however, clearly speak to Scott's growing distaste, like the photo of a young white girl sitting in a chair next to a giant Confederate flag while a young African American girl sits on the ground.

He wondered why the African American girl decided to participate in the re-enactment. And if they do what are they thinking?

But they were also intended to accustom new soldiers to the pace of the battlefield and help them imagine themselves as fighters, rather than farmers, she writes: "Some places, like Forst Monroe, a Union outpost in Virginia, conducted sham battles daily. As the New Georgia Encyclopedia records , Civil War reenacting was part of a longer tradition of shams fought with blank ammunition by American militias. Before the Civil War, town festivals often featured a pageant with costumed citizens dressing as Revolutionary War figures.

Directly after the war ended, Eisenfeld writes, veterans were commissioned to serve as reenactors of a conflict they themselves had fought in.

In the United States, primarily men will dress as Union and Confederate soldiers. The truth of Confederacy reenactment is that these men are representing men who were fighting for slavery in America but their will to reenact is so they can revive an idea of masculinity and honor. This sheds light onto a key difference in Ireland as they are doing this activity to give honor to the men and women who died fighting for a central idea of freedom.

In , Dr. Michael Levy conducted a study into the psychology behind reenactments, specifically those done by trauma victims. The study gave insightful knowledge into the world of military reenactment as well. At times, the attempt is an adaptive process that facilitates the successful resolution and working through of the earlier trauma. In other cases, however, the effort to master the trauma is a maladaptive mechanism and the strategy results in continued distress and difficulties for the individual.

Michael Levy.