Blaska also has video of the ceremony and of interviews he did with some of the participants.And here's my post earlier today with photographs Meade took and background on the monument the City Council voted to remove.
May 28, 2018
At the Memorial Day ceremony at the Madison, Wisconsin graves of Confederate soldiers...
... a Union re-enactor shakes hands with 3 Confederate re-enactors. Here's the photograph from David Blaska's blog.
Blaska also has video of the ceremony and of interviews he did with some of the participants.And here's my post earlier today with photographs Meade took and background on the monument the City Council voted to remove.
Blaska also has video of the ceremony and of interviews he did with some of the participants.And here's my post earlier today with photographs Meade took and background on the monument the City Council voted to remove.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
21 comments:
They're all racists. Somehow.
This should be no surprise. If you want to re-enact a battle, you need others to re-enact your "enemy". The "enemy" re-enactors are your partners, not your opponents. The actual battle was won or lost long ago. Like the Civil War. Can't we honor the courage on both sides? Weren't we supposed to "bind up the wounds"? Who said that, by the way? Some hater, I suppose.
Nice of Letterman to show up.
You don't need re-enactors. There are photos and film of actual Civil War vets shaking hands and embracing one another.
@Mark -- I guess they weren't woke.
At the 50th anniversary of Gettysburg, surviving vets came to mark the occasion. During a re-enactment of Picket's Charge by these same vets, the rebel soldiers came out of the woods and marched up toward Cemetery Ridge. But long before they could get there, the Union vets came out from their positions and walked toward the oncoming former enemy. They went out to meet them and embrace them.
If that is how the men who actually fought to save the Union, and secure freedom for the slaves too, treated Confederate soldiers, who the hell are the people of today to do different?
Reconciliation.
The modern day Left lives in an ahistorical fog of amnesia, coupled with current phony outrage over trivial matters.
They deserve to be mocked and/or ignored.
There are reenactors for practically every armed conflict in history; it’s mostly for men. Likewise, there are costumed reenactors for practically every British romance novel ever written; the audience is primarily women.
My favorite was a “fake news” headline from the Onion a few years back: “Titanic Re-enactment Club Loses Another 1300 Members.”
The glasses always give them away.
Belatedly I have gone to Gettysburg and surveyed from key vantage points some of the battleground. It is vast. It haunts me. I want to return and walk where Pickett's men walked, uphill across an open field, endless paces, without cover or break. Re-enacting that or any other engagement must be incredibly moving, for actors and audience.
I don't think that is fake. We each need to come to terms with history, and this is part of it.
So that's how Santa picks up a few bucks in the off season.
... a Union re-enactor shakes hands with 3 Confederate re-enactors.
Don't get carried away, Althouse. I re-enacted back in the 1980's during the 125th anniversary series, those guys would never pass muster in a re-enactor camp.
I want to return and walk where Pickett's men walked, uphill across an open field, endless paces, without cover or break
When you do, you will see that the ground itself is not smooth and level, but has many dips and rises, which provided some measure of natural cover. Plus, for much of that mile of ground, they were out of the effective aiming range of Union muskets and rifles.
Still you look at it and are amazed they would even try such a thing. But at least the rebs got all the way to engage with the Union forces. Conversely, the Union troops never got close to the wall at Marye's Heights at Fredricksburg when they tried to traverse over a long stretch of open ground.
No mention of the guy in shorts?
Now, that’s a source of outrage!
It is remarkably difficult to heal the wounds of war, and the Civil War left deep wounds. Nonetheless, many people on both sides of the conflict worked to reunite the nation, and I think the American experience laid the groundwork for peace following WWII. My father fought against Japan, yet today they are one of our greatest allies. My father-in-law was part of the D-Day invasion, but West Germany became a valued European ally. Winning the war was brutal, but in peace we worked to become friends with our former enemies. We didn't always get it right, but somehow we managed to forge real alliances.
Those who tear down Confederate statues and the monuments that name the fallen Confederate soldiers dishonor the efforts of all who sought to forge a lasting peace, whose efforts rippled through history.
rehajm said...
The glasses always give them away.
_______________________________________________________
So does the obesity.
Thank you JeanE. It makes me cry thinking about the ladies groups who just wanted to honor the sons and husbands of the fallen by funding statues and taking care of cemeteries. Their efforts should not be dishonored by political fools who are not getting it right. I would also add to the list of former enemies who became friends and allies...the British.
Um. It was more that the British on this continent became Americans and Canadiens.
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...
"Don't get carried away, Althouse. I re-enacted back in the 1980's during the 125th anniversary series, those guys would never pass muster in a re-enactor camp."
The hard core re-enactor term is "FARB."
A shame that Madison Ald. Matt Phair won't see this. Purpose in life these days is to litter the world wide web with superfluous mentions of Madison Ald. Matt Phair.
Post a Comment