Linstrum
08-11-2006, 12:16 PM
This is ‘way different from the kind of “life in the military” type reminiscing you guys have been talking about here lately. This harkens back to the Civil War even though it took place exactly fourteen years ago.
July 4th of 1992 was the second day of the 129th anniversary of The Battle of Gettysburg, and September 19th 1992 was the 129th of Lincoln’s most famous speech, The Gettysburg Address that he gave there in memory to those just fallen. In 1992 the movie Gettysburg was filmed on location there at Gettysburg National Cemetery and Memorial in Pennsylvania. It’s a great movie and I think it is acceptably accurate. Before starting work, the movie’s production team spread the word that they needed Civil War re-enactors as movie extras and invited any and all who could get there on their own. For all who showed up, they were given a place to bivouac on privately owned land next to the Cemetery and they would be fed twice a day. In return the re-enactors had to have correct uniforms and equipment, as well as speak and behave in period manner since film crews would be roaming around filming them. If you saw the movie you know that thousands answered the call and showed up, and without them the movie could not have been made.
One of those who participated was my life-long buddy and compadre. He is into black powder weapons of the Confederacy besides doing Civil War and Mexican War period re-enactments, doing several every year all over California and Nevada. A very large number of re-enactors are Vietnam Vets and the re-enacting serves as an effective catharsis for them. Doing the Gettysburg 129th Anniversary Re-enactment plus being part of the movie were especially significant experiences for them. The re-enactors were camped out in very authentic bivouac conditions, with authentic tents and bedrolls. They ate authentic foods with navy beans, boiled cabbage, hardtack biscuits, corn pone, hush puppies, and fried dough dogs being their daily repast. Until "honey wagons" and portable showers were brought in, camp sanitation was unfortunately also authentic. Reveille, roll call, drill, and Taps (Taps was composed during the Civil War in 1862 by Union General Daniel Adams Butterfield and was immediately adopted by the Confederacy as well), and other period routines were performed daily whether cameras were rolling or not. For those of you who saw the movie, the scene when General Lee was enthusiastically greeted by his troops was not part of the script and the cameras initially were not rolling when the re-enactors spontaneously greeted Martin Sheen and several other key actors when they took a horseback get-acquainted ride through the Cemetery dressed as Confederate General Lee and his staff. A quick-thinking camera operator got most of it, fortunately. Every night, hundreds of campfires were burning and a lot of the requisite Southern sipping whiskey, along with regular beer and wine, were consumed around those nightly campfires. Also, during the Civil War it was not unheard of for a soldier’s family to be present, especially among the Confederates, and my buddy along with many other re-enactors were accompanied by their wives and children, who were all in period dress and performed period camp-follower activities at the Confederate and Union camps.
One evening my compadre, his wife, and another couple were walking the several miles back from the modern town of Gettysburg to their bivouac. They had splurged and gone out to dinner at a restaurant rather than put up with another authentic meal of pork and beans, boiled cabbage, and corn pone or hush puppies that night. It was around 11:00 PM when they left Gettysburg and they had no idea that around midnight they would also be walking from 1992 right into the middle of the evening of July 3, 1863. Gettysburg and Antietam are reportedly among the most haunted places in America and it is no wonder, with more men being violently killed there in a matter of days than in all of Vietnam, at EACH battle. The ironic thing about Gettysburg is that it started on July 3 and on The Fourth of July, 1863, the fireworks were quite real, as well as quite deadly. There are many eerie and strange things heard and seen in and around the cemetery, day or night, and during re-enactments there these unexplainable incidents increase dramatically, most likely due to the increased number of visitors along with the large amounts of “enlightening serum” consumed in the evenings that enables such things to be detected much, much better, especially late at night. Along the sides of the road they were walking on they heard things off in the bushes and woods that made them unwilling to ever again walk there alone at night. My buddy told me that what they heard were not mysterious animal whistles and hoots, loud shouting or anything overt like that, but there was a distinct hubbub of voices just off “over there” and occasional words could be made out quite distinctly. It was not at all quiet like in most peaceful country settings. What they heard “just over there” two hundred or so feet away ranged from laughter and animated conversation to the moans of dying men and tears being shed for dead loved ones, just the sorts of things that would have been heard there just before, during, and after the several days of murderous battle129 years earlier. The spookiest part of it, though, was seeing the fleeting movements in the darkness and shadows under the trees that they caught out of the corners of their eyes as they walked along, like they were being followed and checked out by sentry pickets trying to determine if they were friend or foe. Of course there was nobody there, but the phenomenon persisted for far too many miles along the road for it to be coming from a distant unseen radio or TV with the volume turned up high. When they came within earshot of their own encampment at about 1 AM, the mysterious voices and the fleeting figures in the shadows faded and were replaced by the subdued conversations and laughter of those who were still up tending the campfires and enjoying a last sip of whiskey and pipe-full of Cherry Blend before going to bed. When my buddy’s party got back to camp and they mentioned what they had just experienced walking along the lonely road, they were told that it is quite common and folks hear it all the time there, even when it is raining. The next day the National Park Rangers assigned to oversee their operations verified the phenomenon.
July 4th of 1992 was the second day of the 129th anniversary of The Battle of Gettysburg, and September 19th 1992 was the 129th of Lincoln’s most famous speech, The Gettysburg Address that he gave there in memory to those just fallen. In 1992 the movie Gettysburg was filmed on location there at Gettysburg National Cemetery and Memorial in Pennsylvania. It’s a great movie and I think it is acceptably accurate. Before starting work, the movie’s production team spread the word that they needed Civil War re-enactors as movie extras and invited any and all who could get there on their own. For all who showed up, they were given a place to bivouac on privately owned land next to the Cemetery and they would be fed twice a day. In return the re-enactors had to have correct uniforms and equipment, as well as speak and behave in period manner since film crews would be roaming around filming them. If you saw the movie you know that thousands answered the call and showed up, and without them the movie could not have been made.
One of those who participated was my life-long buddy and compadre. He is into black powder weapons of the Confederacy besides doing Civil War and Mexican War period re-enactments, doing several every year all over California and Nevada. A very large number of re-enactors are Vietnam Vets and the re-enacting serves as an effective catharsis for them. Doing the Gettysburg 129th Anniversary Re-enactment plus being part of the movie were especially significant experiences for them. The re-enactors were camped out in very authentic bivouac conditions, with authentic tents and bedrolls. They ate authentic foods with navy beans, boiled cabbage, hardtack biscuits, corn pone, hush puppies, and fried dough dogs being their daily repast. Until "honey wagons" and portable showers were brought in, camp sanitation was unfortunately also authentic. Reveille, roll call, drill, and Taps (Taps was composed during the Civil War in 1862 by Union General Daniel Adams Butterfield and was immediately adopted by the Confederacy as well), and other period routines were performed daily whether cameras were rolling or not. For those of you who saw the movie, the scene when General Lee was enthusiastically greeted by his troops was not part of the script and the cameras initially were not rolling when the re-enactors spontaneously greeted Martin Sheen and several other key actors when they took a horseback get-acquainted ride through the Cemetery dressed as Confederate General Lee and his staff. A quick-thinking camera operator got most of it, fortunately. Every night, hundreds of campfires were burning and a lot of the requisite Southern sipping whiskey, along with regular beer and wine, were consumed around those nightly campfires. Also, during the Civil War it was not unheard of for a soldier’s family to be present, especially among the Confederates, and my buddy along with many other re-enactors were accompanied by their wives and children, who were all in period dress and performed period camp-follower activities at the Confederate and Union camps.
One evening my compadre, his wife, and another couple were walking the several miles back from the modern town of Gettysburg to their bivouac. They had splurged and gone out to dinner at a restaurant rather than put up with another authentic meal of pork and beans, boiled cabbage, and corn pone or hush puppies that night. It was around 11:00 PM when they left Gettysburg and they had no idea that around midnight they would also be walking from 1992 right into the middle of the evening of July 3, 1863. Gettysburg and Antietam are reportedly among the most haunted places in America and it is no wonder, with more men being violently killed there in a matter of days than in all of Vietnam, at EACH battle. The ironic thing about Gettysburg is that it started on July 3 and on The Fourth of July, 1863, the fireworks were quite real, as well as quite deadly. There are many eerie and strange things heard and seen in and around the cemetery, day or night, and during re-enactments there these unexplainable incidents increase dramatically, most likely due to the increased number of visitors along with the large amounts of “enlightening serum” consumed in the evenings that enables such things to be detected much, much better, especially late at night. Along the sides of the road they were walking on they heard things off in the bushes and woods that made them unwilling to ever again walk there alone at night. My buddy told me that what they heard were not mysterious animal whistles and hoots, loud shouting or anything overt like that, but there was a distinct hubbub of voices just off “over there” and occasional words could be made out quite distinctly. It was not at all quiet like in most peaceful country settings. What they heard “just over there” two hundred or so feet away ranged from laughter and animated conversation to the moans of dying men and tears being shed for dead loved ones, just the sorts of things that would have been heard there just before, during, and after the several days of murderous battle129 years earlier. The spookiest part of it, though, was seeing the fleeting movements in the darkness and shadows under the trees that they caught out of the corners of their eyes as they walked along, like they were being followed and checked out by sentry pickets trying to determine if they were friend or foe. Of course there was nobody there, but the phenomenon persisted for far too many miles along the road for it to be coming from a distant unseen radio or TV with the volume turned up high. When they came within earshot of their own encampment at about 1 AM, the mysterious voices and the fleeting figures in the shadows faded and were replaced by the subdued conversations and laughter of those who were still up tending the campfires and enjoying a last sip of whiskey and pipe-full of Cherry Blend before going to bed. When my buddy’s party got back to camp and they mentioned what they had just experienced walking along the lonely road, they were told that it is quite common and folks hear it all the time there, even when it is raining. The next day the National Park Rangers assigned to oversee their operations verified the phenomenon.