Gettysburg dress
Jul
5
Four score and seven years ago, the Battle of Gettysburg was already over–and had been for another three score before that. But the battle site, which is where President Abraham Lincoln gave his oft-quoted Gettysburg address, remains an intensely symbolic and ever-revisited chapter in American history. Remembrances of Gettysburg call to mind ghost stories, Confederate flags, piles of corpses and, like so many sites of revolutionary combat, battle reenactments. All right, we get it, a bunch of old guys dressing up, marching around and pretending to shoot each other? It seems a little silly. But it also seems slightly awesome. What better way to learn about history than to dramatize it firsthand? Event organizers say they expect hundreds of spectators and “lots of antique weapons.” All firearms will be originals or reproductions of American Civil War weaponry–anything that could have been used on or before April 1865. Prepare for a morning of gunpowder, pipes, flags, fifes and more. Turns out that once it’s over, war can be kind of fun.
Civil War Reenacting with the 69th NY Irish Brigade
Civil War Reenacting with the Irish Brigade, 69th NY Infantry.
