Comments | sihaya09: Gettysburg 150th

sihaya09

Gettysburg 150th

Jul 05, 2013 13:38

This week has been a huge one for Gettysburg, as it celebrates the 150th anniversary of the battle. For the 4th, Jason and I decided to go up for a day of the re-enactment--my brother, Daniel, is a re-enactor for the Union and was be one of 10,000 (!) re-enactors participating. It's also such a momentous event, we wanted to say we were there. ( Read more... )

gettysburg, christina has very strong opinions, that p word, family

Comments 9

wcg July 5 2013, 19:03:41 UTC

Thanks for the write-up. I wasn't there, and given the heat and humidity I can't say I'm sorry. I could contemplate the unfolding of events over those three days just as well from within air-conditioned comfort.

I did go up to G-burg in November for the annual ball they have to mark the end of the re-enactment season and the anniversary of the G-burg Address. It's an interesting event. (I was invited because I do historic dance, I'd never been to one of the balls before.)

Have you seen the movie, Gettysburg? It's based on The Killer Angels.

sihaya09 July 5 2013, 19:04:36 UTC

Yeah! In fact, J and I are going to re-watch it this weekend.

wcg July 5 2013, 19:06:58 UTC

I plan to do so too. It's become an annual thing for me.

lapinetrose July 5 2013, 20:28:32 UTC

I can totally picture you and Jason getting into the reenactment thing. And yes, I'm sure it would be consuming, in more ways than one.

sihaya09 July 5 2013, 20:29:18 UTC

I'm sure my hair would go over wonderfully in the 1860's! :P

lapinetrose July 5 2013, 20:30:54 UTC

Just gotta use vegetable dyes, hon. Beet!

kazoogrrl July 6 2013, 04:11:16 UTC

I wish I'd had my act together and had dragged my dad up there for this! He does competition black powder rifle, musket and cannon shooting with the North South Skirmish Association. They are not as strict as re-enactors for having everything be period, but he does dress up and makes all his own bullets for his guns and other cool stuff. He's a part of the 1st Va Calvary, he joined because he had friends involved (mostly from the south with a few outliers from more northern states). And yep, you do encounter some pretty backwards thinking (on both sides) but I can definitely say not all the people involved with the Confederate side of things are racist shitheads. My dad's not the most progressive or forward thinker but he definitely has no time for the kind of people you described!

blushing_grace July 6 2013, 12:47:20 UTC

Part of the states rights thing you hear about - General Lee waffled for a while on which side to come in on, but there's a quote where he basically said he was a Virginian first and an American second. Many people of the time had a much stronger state versus national identity. It was a result of this war and WWI that really brought nationalism into vogue.

sihaya09 July 6 2013, 13:50:30 UTC

I know that, but the type of person who pulls out the "state's rights" excuse for flying the battle flag are the ones who like to conveniently omit that the southern states were fighting for the explicit right not only to own other people, but to expand the practice into the territories. That has very little to do with state identity, imo.