2/12/08
Jonah,
I really enjoyed the compilation of art you have on the site for Harry Dierken. I like the way he reflects the stye of the times in his drawings, it looks like the artist from Hardtack & coffee - Charles Reed, and others from that era. Harry puts his own humor into it.
I especially like the drawings for "Gaslight Ghost" & "Mary Surrat's Heartless Judge."
Kevin O'Malley
9th Va, Co. C
Yes, Harry is the Grand Old Man of local Civil War art, as far as I'm concerned. I really like his style, too. I asked him about his style, once, and he told me that he thought it was reminscent of Walton Taber. I can see it. I am happy to report that, according to a common friend, Harry is alive and well and an octogenarian, although he hasn't done any reenacting in a while. - Jonah
1/28/08
Hey Jonah!
I haven't wriitten to you in like, forever, but what the hey. i just wanted to thank you for keeping up the website and the great articles. i especially liked the ones about the 125th events, and also the rouzerville tacticals. i remember well those latter, especially the '83 & 84. At one of them, i remember we Federals running out of rounds while defending an elevated position, and throwing potatoes and apples at the Johnnies while hollering FREDERICKSBURG! at the top of our lungs.
Great times all. I also agree that there will likely not be another sight to our eyes as impressive as the 125th Pickett's Charge scenario. That was amazing in so many ways.
Ah well. Nice to hear you are back in the field. If you get to Ander's gettysburg event this year (At High Tide), look me up. I'll be attached to the CS medical units, in the field with the ambulance (we have an actual 2- wheel ambulance that Jon Noviki built).
Anyway, You have a great website and it's always good to visit and reminice about the "old days" of reenacting.
Respects,
Tim Kindred
10/23/07
Dear Jonah Begone,
I have been a fan of your website for about a year now and I frequently visit to hear what you have to say. I must say, you do an excellent job. If I need a good laugh, I can always find something funny to read on your site. Recently, I started a website called The Young Campaigner. It is geared towards young people in Civil War reenacting. I know that you are active in the reenactment community and if you are anything like me, you are probably tired of seeing the myriad youthful farbs of the reenacting world out on the field. Being a kid myself, I set out to change some of that. I would love it if you could link to my website on your site. You can visit me here.
William Chapman
9/26/07
Jonah,
I have been reading your site for at least two or more years now.....and I have to say welcome back to the lunatic fringe!
I have been reenacting for five-six years now and am a Captain of a small Confederate unit in Maine. Your observations about the ego and the IDs in the personalities of reenactors is right on the bubble! Our former Captain was the Meglomaniac, reliving his youthful Army glory days...and I know another Captain who is the "foremost expert on everything reenacting/civil war history" and is often indignant about "protocol" and the perception of the south... It has always been my opinion we are not much different than Star trek groupies other than we have a historical basis. Keeps one grounded.
One thing, maybe it hasn't hit you yet, but the last couple of years in the hobby is the "great musket cap panic." Caps are getting harder to find in great quantities (the four wing caps specifically)... leading to the foretelling of the END OF THE HOBBY. We can't use the six wingers as they are dangerous. (But are they really?)
It's always good to read your articles...
Captain Michael Pratt (aka Seamus Kilkenny or most recently Chainfire Pratt)
15th Alabama
I have a couple of tins of ten year old caps in stock, so the Great Cap Shortage (whether real or imagined) hasn't affected me yet. But I briefly encountered a bit of this at the last event I did. Somebody apparently got hit with a bit of cap, and the first question asked was, "Are you using six wingers?" "Huh? Six wingers?" I thought. Well, that's a new one on me. All mine have four wings. - Jonah
8/3/07
I just read your article about the training given to the actors in Band of Brothers by Capt. Dye. I agree wholeheartedly with the entire writing. While I am not a combat veteran, I did serve 4 Years in the Navy and 4 in the Army. I agree that unless you have experienced the rigors of a military basic training, that you can not possibly have a clue as to the closeness of the military unit.
I too looked forward to the completion of boot camp with apprehension. It would be a whole new world, with new leaders and new peers and the fear that you would not "fit in." In both services, I found that fitting in was a matter of as my dear father the First Sergeant told me, "boy, ears open and mouth shut!" That advice served me well along with the reliance upon my petty officers and NCOs. The guys in the Army even asked if I was nuts, leaving the "comfort" of the Navy for the Army. I guess giving up the routine 20 hour days of flight ops for garrison duty with the Military Police was strange to them for some reason???
Anyway, thanks for a great article.
Bruce Stump
Pittsfield, MA
3/27/07
Jonah,
I was searching the web and came across your site "But is it art?" In reference to Arnold Friberg's "A Prayer at Valley Forge." I would agree that this is probably one of the best religious paintings we will get... but have you seen "A Father's Prayer" by David Wright? An almost exact image of Valley Forge... it is amazing two great generals in our nation's history can be at the same spot, only 100 years apart. I understand LHAPs and the whole illustration of a certain specific instant, and I get the idea of a spiritual South, but come on... next we will see General Lee crossing the Potomac in a boat, standing tall with his Stars and Bars behind him.
Are they really running out of ideas? Or maybe Hollywood needs to create some more for them in one of their next films.
Respectfully,
MJ
Hi MJ!
"A Father's Prayer": That's downright plagiarism!
No, I haven't seen it before - I've been out of the loop with the current LHAP trends (by design). But thanks for alerting me!
Jonah
5/19/06
Jonah:
I read with some personal interest your explanation of the origin of the term 'FARB' in your article.
As you can probably tell, I have a personal interest in the origin of this term, as it seems to be derogatory. I am glad to see it is not associated with me or one of my relatives, although I can probably point you to a number of Farbs who are in fact farby.
You might be interested in some Farb family history, about the origin of the family name. Whether the following is fact or just family mythology, I don't really know.
My great-great-great grandfather was born Anders Magnus Sjostedt, November 3, 1793 in Sweden. He was a soldier in Napoleon Bonaparte's army. Apparently Napoleon's generals (many of whom were Prussian I guess) could not pronounce the Swedish names, so the Swedish soldiers were given German names, in our case Farb (color). Apparently Anders survived, and died October 25th, 1871. His son was Carl Johan Farb, whose son was August Theodore Farb, whose son was Carl Alfred Farb, whose son was Kenneth Eugene Farb, my father.
I am somewhat glad to see that the origin of the term 'farb' is not a derogatory reference to one of my relatives, but if you need a derogatory reference to a real live Farb, I can supply several.
There is another 'family' of Farb's, who seem to be located around Rockford Illinois. As far as I know, they are a different family.
Thanks
David Michael Farb,
A Farb of the Sixth Generation.
2/13/06
I read your article “We Are All Privates Ryan”… I must say that it touched me deeply.
When I was younger (so much younger than today) I never gave much thought to signing up for military service… You see, since birth I have been around the military as an Army Brat so I lived and breathed military without even realizing it, until now. Even now I work as a civilian for the Department of Defense; I am the exhibits specialist for the U.S, Army Signal Corps Museum. The only time I have not been associated with the military was for about six months after I was honorably discharged from the Army.
I was asked if I wanted my old Army job back as a civilian… I did and have been in government service now for 35 years… But let’s go back a bit.
When I turned 18, and fresh out of high school I had a decision to make… join the Army or get drafted… I opted for joining because then at least I could pick what I wanted to do… I became a clerk, not any clerk mind you but THE Company Clerk… The one you didn’t want to get pissed off or your records might become missing or you might be scheduled for KP more than the others etc… It also worked the other way too. You might get to take a 30 day leave home and finance would somehow never know about it and not deduct the time off. After AIT I received orders for Vietnam… As most of the soldiers in my company did.
We were flown to Fort Lewis, Washington to be processed for shipment. So here I was, a skinny 18 year old in jungle fatigues at Fort Lewis getting ready to ship out, was I nervous you bet! Everybody was, even though some acted cool about it… The day before shipping out I went to sick call… The doctor I saw told me that due to a medical problem I had at the time I was not deployable. I just sat there…and finally asked him if that meant I wouldn’t be going to Vietnam. “That’s right” he told me. I didn’t know what to think… I was relieved but at the same time disappointed, a very heavy bag of mixed emotions. Like you I am considered a Vietnam Era Veteran. I am not ashamed at that moniker because I was ever so close to going. And I did serve for 6 years. I was stationed at Fort Lewis with the most wonderful scenery you could imagine. It reminded me of my many trips to Germany thanks to being an Army Brat. I was then sent to Vicenza, Italy, a beautiful town in the northern part of Italy, near the Alps. I have very fond memories of traveling around the world as an Army Brat and also as a soldier.
I know this is getting long winded but like you I do Civil War reenacting of course as a Signal Corpsman. And like you I’ve run into others who having spent no time in the military. I of chuckle a bit when they try to act the part. I think if they only knew. One week in real basic training would, I think, humble some down a bit. I’m doing this for fun, I also did it for real.
Thanks for listening
Mike Rodgers
US Army Signal Corps Museum
“We WILL Get the Message Through”
1/15/06
I think your just jealous because we have a worth while hobby and all you can do is bitch an moan like a button pisser and not do anything about it except bash people who spend their time and money to educate the public about what these people had to go through in the stuggle of freedom for the Southerners and reuniting of the States for the Northerners. Reenacting is here to stay for as long as im alive. And to add alot of the people that Reenact the Civil War are doing it because they had family fight in it. I myself had 4 relatives, 2 of whom died in battle and another in prision. So when you die I pray you will be cast to the deepest depths of hell for your disrespect and dishonor to the brave and heroic men and women who fought and sacrificed in the American Civil War.
On behalf of the Civil War Reenacting community
andrew g
P.S. The Civil War was not fought over slavery till after the Antietam, it was fought to preserve the Union, so get your facts right.
I was wondering when I was going to get a flame. It took being nearly ten years on the World Wide Web - amazing.
Are there any instances of where I'm denigrating a person who actually fought in the Civil War? I don't think so.
Jonah
12/7/05
Jonah,
There's been a lot of talk going on in the Civil War re-enacting world about "Farbs".
And there always has been. It seems to be the subject nobody ever tires of discussing. (Except me.)
Why is it that when we talk about the farbs that everyone gets the itch to just cut them down.
Probably because it's human nature to identify ways in which we're better than our fellow man. Or the male competitive spirit. I'm not sure!
I'm not standing up for them, if anyone thinks that, it's just that sometimes we should just let things slide.
Agreed. Others, however, will argue that this will be the thin edge of the wedge.
If the public is asking: "How come those people over there have modern stuff showing and you don't?" then why not tell the public that your impression is more on the correct path than most others in the hobby? It's not difficult to explain to the public what the difference is, the public has no clue as to what a "Farb" is much less want to know about it, they could care less. The public is interested in seeing "blood and gore", people taking dramatic hits, the general mayhem of combat and authenticity of the scene. I'm sure that if they saw some modern things in camp every now and then won't harm their deep impression of the Civil War. They know that we live in the "Now" and not the "Then" era.
Agreed.
We recreate or re-enact a part of history, but without the blood and gore details that surround it. The thing is we have to use common sense, without it we'd just be plain arrogant at everything.
Sincerely,
Another Jonah
Well, you'll get no strident opposition for what you say from me!
Jonah Begone
7/8/05
Hello Jonah,
I was perusing the web (procrastinating when I should be working on a book) and I found both you site and my article on seeing the elephant. Thanks for using the piece, now (yikes!) twenty-one years old.
Regards,
Jerry
Ain't the Internet sumpthin'?
That's the neat thing about JonahWorld! Articles may disappear or be long-forgotten elsewhere, but I keep the better ones!
Jonah
6/17/05
Hi Jonah,
I was prompted to search for the story of Edwin Booth saving Robert Todd Lincoln after seeing a re-telling on a t.v. show called, "Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction?" (a show that started on the FOX network in 1998, currently in re-runs on the SciFi Channel). I don't exactly place full trust in the show's researchers - as one commenter states, "Just because a no-name author has first-hand accounts doesn't mean the people he interviewed aren't big fat liars." OK, that's harsh -- but it's also a valid concern when researching factual events.
Besides your site, my search brought up the following book by an author I've never heard of. You can find that (or any) book here. Type in your location (following the instructions) and the site's search engine will find libraries near you, with a pre-entered search criteria using the book you're looking for.
The book I found referenced in relation to the Booth/Lincoln story is: "Robert Todd Lincoln: a man in his own right" By: John S Goff, Publisher: Norman, University of Oklahoma Press [1968, ©1969], Subjects: Lincoln, Robert Todd, -- 1843-1926.
While the following site seems "respectable," I still have my doubts as to the truth of the story, since the account rendered here contradicts a letter published on your site. In the letter, the author notes that Booth's sister Asia makes no mention of the incident, while TheHistoryNet.com author claims, "...Booth frequently mentioned the event to friends..." It would seem to me that Asia would certainly highlight the story in her brother's biography, even if her family had been treated poorly following the assassination. If anything, it would seem to exculpate the family, and therefore re-attain national favored status (unless, that is, she supported the assassination as a fiercely resentful Southern Sympathizer -- and since the war continues, in some respects, in our present day, I suppose that could be the case). Here is the site.
I think I shall end my search with that; perhaps you ended yours long ago. I'm inclined to accept the unverifiability of the story ... until something more substantial comes to light. Regardless, I hope this email is at least somewhat useful to your work by providing a couple of resources of which you may have been unaware. I thank you for the work you have done.
Best Regards,
Kimchi
Thanks! So far I have not done any real research into the matter, to prove it true or false. I have simply confined myself to reprinting some articles about it. Did it really happen? I'm open eaither way. - Jonah
4/12/05
Jonah -
I too was dismayed by the "Lincoln was gay" article. The point this guy missed (or ignored because it does not further his agenda) is that the world that Lincoln lived in was completely segregated by sex. Except at formal social functions or in rigidly supervised courtship encounters, men and women did not mix. Even then the women were almost universally escorted by a male relative if they were unmarried. Further, Lincoln was a classic type-A personality. He was a workaholic who was completely focused on his professional and political careers and often worked more than 12 hours a day, 6 to 7 days a week. This, coupled with the fact that he had almost no likelihood of encountering women during the course of his political/professional conduct, meant Lincoln was immersed in an almost completely male world - as were just about all other 19th century men.
I agree with the article's author's contention that homosexuality existed during the 19th century and it certainly makes sense for it to be more prevalent in a frontier environment where there are fewer women and less stringent social norms. I note, however, that while Illinois was technically the "frontier" during the ante-bellum era, during the 20 years leading up to the 1860 the growth and socio-economic characteristics looked more like what we have seen in the modern places like Silicon Valley. I say with my tongue only partly in my cheek that one would expect more extreme nonconformist behavior to flourish not in high growth, boomtown, ante bellum Illinois but in ante bellum Texas (which seemed to be a place at that time where people who didn't fit in anywhere else tended to migrate).
On a pseudo-related note, I would recommend the book Born Losers by Scott Sandage. Sandage paints a picture of the 19th century intellectual history of personal economic failure that is fascinating. And yes, Lincoln figures prominently but not in the way you might think (he was a spy for early credit reporting agencies).
I have never felt the need to email you before but I have been a lurker on your site for years. I am a former civil war reenactor who no longer does it (i) because I now have a wife and child that I like spending my weekends with; (ii) I simply don't have enough time as a lawyer to have a hobby that is so all consuming; and (iii) I used to be a rebel reenactor and after actually thinking about the civil war feel too conflicted about the pain of the civil war to want to spend time reenacting it (and my emotional tie to the south is too strong to want to do a Union impression). I enjoy your musings and the collection of articles you have posted on your website. You should think about pulling your stuff together into a larger project: You are an engaging writer and your work is interesting and very entertaining to read, and not just on topics that I have a clear affinity for - I checked out your memoirs of your youth in California thinking I wouldn't find it interesting and found that I read the whole thing in one sitting.
Cheers and keep up the good work,
David Tayman
11/29/04
Dear Jonah,
I like your article on "YOUR RIGHT TO PRIVACY" and it has some truths in it but it also lacks one item, the privacy of others on or off the field.
I have a friend that went re-enacting last year and he read all the bylaws and operating proceedures of their company. Now the thing is their bylaws didn't state anything about going online and talking about events and what not. The NCO in the unit got some information from someone online about this and contacted my friend and put him on disciplinary probation without him knowing. Then later my friend asked him a bunch of questions on why they did what they did, he refused to answer his questions fully and made him feel guilty for their ownmistake. My friend feels that the NCO is fully responsible and also feels that they betrayed him when he was a "green" troop.
I, myself, blame the NCO completely because it was his arrogance and ego that made this happen.
Thank you,
Another Jonah
Reenactment NCOs and officers govern with the consent of the governed. In fact, they have no real authority at all. As Mal Stylo once pointed out, sham NCOs and officers must take the Montessori approach and persuade others to do their will. Whenever I hear that one of them is disciplining somebody (and somebody lets them get away with it) I have to pick my jaw up from off the floor. - Jonah
11/24/04
Honored Sir,
Please allow me to take a minute to say how much I admire your work. I have been a reenactor for several years and I think that your site helps me keep it all in perspective. If you can't laugh at yourself...
Anyway, in addition to my reenacting activities (I portray a regimental surgeon), I am also a professional historian. I wish that you would turn your pen to our ranks and poke some fun at us once in a while. Believe me, there would be lots of material! I enclose one item found on the internet as an example:
He had only one major publication.
It was in Hebrew.
It had no references.
It wasn't published in a refereed journal.
Some even doubt he wrote it by himself.
It may be true that he created the world, but what has he done since then?
His cooperative efforts have been quite limited.
The scientific community has had a hard time replicating his results.
He never applied to the ethics board for permission to use human subjects.
When one experiment went awry he tried to cover it by drowning his subjects.
When subjects didn't behave as predicted, he deleted them from the sample.
He rarely came to class, just told students to read the book.
Some say he had his son teach the class.
He expelled his first two students for learning.
Although there were only 10 requirements, most of his students failed his tests.
His office hours were infrequent and usually held on a mountain top.
No record of working well with colleagues.
Keep up the fine work!
I have the honor to be,
Your ob't servant, etc,
Brady Lee Hutchison
Assistant Editor
The Papers of Jefferson Davis
Rice University MS 43
Thank you! Unfortunately, I can't effectively poke fun at professional historians because I'm not one myself and therefore don't understand the culture! But this bit is a hoot! - Jonah
11/21/04
I miss "The Rebel," too.
When I was living in Summerville, SC, about 18 miles from Charleston in 1960 Nick Adams came to make a personal appearance to promote "The Rebel" during the height of the Centennial. I was not lucky enough to be one of those who got to shake his hand but I well remember they brought him in on a "good-guy" white horse and he rode very close to the small stands we were sitting in.
I have a couple of episodes of "The Rebel" on tape along with an epsiode or two of "The Gray Ghost." The problem with "The Gray Ghost" is that it was recorded on some arcane video format and it costs about $45,000 per episode to transfer it to standard viedotape (or so I was told when I inquired).
At one time it was honorable to be a Confederate...even "Gil Favor" (the trail boss on "Rawhide") had a history of having been a Confederate captain. Maybe that was why he was so understanding of the addle-pated former Confederate soldier "Mushy" who rode on the chuckwagon with "Cookie."
It is going to take a lot of work to get back to being able to portray Confederates as heroic figures...
YOS,
Col. Kelley
37th Texas Cavalry
9/17/04
Dear Mr. Begone:
I read with great interest (and more than a few chuckles) your review of the "Legendary New Market Flag Film," (formally known as New Market: Field of Honor.) While the film is certainly dated, and had modest production values, it was an award-winner in its day--specifically the Gold Medal for Documentary Film at the International Film Festival of New York, 1967.
However, as Gods and Generals songster Bob Dylan once noted, "The times, they are a changin'." The feature film shown daily every hour at the New Market Battlefield State Historical Park is now Field of Lost Shoes. This docu-drama, produced in conjunction with the Harrisonburg, Virginia public television station WVPT, employs both historical images and reenactment footage to a great degree. Like the "bouncing flag" film, Field of Lost Shoes focuses on the unique role of the VMI Cadets in the Battle of New Market. It has been honored with a Virginia Association of Broadcasters award, a Telly Award for outstanding local programming, and an Emmy Award for best direction.
I hope, on your next visit to New Market, that you take in the new production. It is also available for sale in our museum store. Since we receive no public funds to operate the Park, every penny counts.
Oh, and we sometimes still show the flag film, too.
Scott H. Harris, Director
New Market Battlefield State Historical Park
Thanks for the note, Scott! Yes... next time I'm in the Valley I shall see this promising new production. Actually, I want to make sure that everyone understands me perfectly: I like the Flag Film. For me it's one of Virginia's minor historical resources. I always enjoy seeing it in the same way I like watching quirky non-Hollywood-style cult films like Carnival of Souls or Glen or Glenda. (Which is not to suggest that the Flag Film has anything in common with the dead walking the earth or transvestites.) The cachet of this film was first noted to me by members of the Eighth Ohio while at an event ("You've got to go see the 'Flag Film,' Jonah!"), and I have promoted it to other reenactors and Boys Scouts at New Market activities. I'm glad to hear you still show it occasionally!
I also get a kick out of the other one, about Stonewall in the Valley. In fact, even as I type I can hear the military-style incidental music to those throbbing maps...
Jonah
9/14/04
Jonah,
I have to thank you for making my morning! I love your site; I haven't stopped laughing since I looked at your "But is it art?" section. While I'm not a CW reenactor I've worked on a few film projects with a number of CW reenactors and I doubt they would find any humor in your site, as they seem to be the type that take the idea of the "War for States' Rights" and the religous views of the southern generals a little too seriously.
As a Rev war reenactor I did see alot of good and funny points with your comparison. Though in my unit I think we could drill you until you drop, our canteens aren't for decoration and we aren't the cleanest bunch of guys in uniform :) (though we are considered a "progressive" unit) keep up the great work on the site.
Nathan
Thanks!
I ran a marathon last May, and I play rugby. Nobody in reenacting can drill me until I drop! (Oh, I might get thoroughly bored and quit, but that's different...) - Jonah
8/17/04
Jonah:
I have to agree with the young lady who wrote you on 1.9.04. She was rather unforgiving in her examination, but I must say dead on-point. If you have issues with the Christian faith, then say that, more people will respect you. Attacking a painting simply because it has the words 'Holy Bible' written on the book spine is no reason to criticize an artwork. The pedophilia thing is way over-the-top...... like, whoa, dude, where did that come from over-the-top--- comments like this devastate your credibility. Moreover, I would say that your analysis is clouded by your prejudices.
I also find it really, and I do mean really, hard to believe that you have only received one other negative email. I would think that most reasonable people would find your verbiage offensive. If I may offer one or two unsolicited suggestions (1) stay off the left-wing/Anti-Christian websites and (2) give this up for something more useful.
Best Regards,
John
Tampa, Florida
Smarmy Christian art isn't Christian faith, thank goodness. You might be surprised to know that I attend church for at least three hours every Sunday and, in fact, lead a men's group. Have for years. - Jonah
1/9/04
Hi,
I found your website tonight after looking at the painting "The Christian General." Now I'm POSITIVE that you've gotten a few offending e-mails in the past, but I don't want you to view this one like that. I just want to be straight up with you.
First of all, it is simply a matter of human nature that that which one is able to see hidden in another is most certainly there in himself. It's just a fact - like 2 and 2 is 4. So, in light of that fact, I thought you should know that you are the most blatant pedophile I have ever seen. I mean I'm just a 30 year old woman with no ties to the civil war - as far as who I think was right or wrong - and if you can see pedophilia in the paintings of Lee, hmmmmmmmmm. The question is really this - In the painting, "The Compassionate General," what were YOU looking at?????
You're a freak, dude, and I just thought someone should let you know: )
Tara
Actually, in the nearly eight years JonahWorld! has been up I have received only one negative e-mail. It's hard for me to believe, but it is so. And that was from a non-reenactor who accused me (and, by extension, all reenactors) of being a pathetic military wannabe. I pointed out to him that I spent four years in the Marine Corps, mustering out as a sergeant, and that closed the discussion.
If I'm a pedophile it's surely a complete surprise to my twenty year-old son, my sixteen year-old daughter and my thirteen year-old daughter, with whom I have excellent (and wholesomely normal) relations. Not to mention my wife of twenty-three years. (And, I assure you, Mrs. Begone is not the sort of woman to cavort with pedophiles.) This revelation would probably also come as a shock to all of the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts I've led in my eight years as a Scouting leader, and, more recently, to my daughter's cheerleading squad (whom I sometimes refer to as my "surrogate daughters").
As for psychological observations being as exact as math (2 and 2 is 4), I strongly disagree. That's why the social sciences are also called "soft" sciences.
Okay, okay, perhaps I was looking for something to lambaste the LHAP artist with in those Lee studies and tried too hard. Or... perhaps, being a diligent parent and a male who has seen somewhat of the seedier instincts in his fellow man, I am overly suspicious. (There were a couple of genuine pedophiles in scout troops I know of while I was serving.) It's just that painted depictions of good ol' Grampa Lee snugglin' up with them purty lit'l children kind of gives me the creeps, ya know? "Son, mah rheumatism is kickin' up agin. Give th' General a little rub on th' upper leg, will'ya?" Brrr.
Or maybe, as a child I was molested by a bearded old man and, as a defense mechanism, managed to entirely submerge the memory - but it still bubbles forth in my writing from time to time.
Anyway, I'm not a perv. Thank you, however, for being straight up with me!
Jonah Begone
12/5/03
Jonah,
I read your review about "the Blue and the Gray" and must state that I think you're being a little harsh here. Calling the main character, John Hammond, "an annoying pacifist wussie" is a weak comment; especially coming from a Civil War re-enactor who is too much of a "wussie" himself to join the real United States military. That's okay though, you go and play with your reenactor friends and try to make it as real as you can--hope no one gets hurt. As for your movie critiques, keep them to yourself and your other buddies around the campfire.
Maj. Dave Clark
Well, this is interesting. In the more than seven years JonahWorld! has been up yours is the first true flame e-mail I have gotten! I was wondering, there, if I would ever get one.
I was in the U.S. Marine Corps for four years, by the way: 1974 - 1978. No, I wasn't drafted. I enlisted. I was honorably discharged as a sergeant. The US government deems me a "Viet Nam Era Veteran," although I was never deployed there. Semper Fi!
Jonah Begone
p.s. I still think "the Blue and the Gray" sucked.
11/5/03
Dear Jonah,
I was happily reading along and agreeing with everything you said. Until I got to the bit about John Paul Strain, Nathan Bedford Forrest, and generals in the snow. My personal triumvirate. I hope you get swallowed by a whale.
Your obt. servant,
Lillie Ann
Ah, but if I were swallowed by a whale, who then would become the Confederates' replacement as a target for scorn?
John Paul Strain: Perhaps it's a measure of when I was born (in the mid-Fifties), but a limited edition historical art print in his "Moon" series entitled, say, "Robert E. Lee Moon" doesn't conjure up a landscape at night.
Jonah Begone
7/2/03
Cruising the web, researching Edwin Booth, my mouse fell upon your site, and your question about the source of the story of how Edwin unwittingly saved Robert Todd Lincoln.
In "The Mad Booths of Maryland" (1940), the author, Stanley Kimmel, retells the story which he attributes to an article by Robert Lincoln which appeared in "The Century Magazine", April 1909.
Then, in Eleanor Ruggles' book, "Prince of Players" (1953), a version of the story is told by Adam Badeau which more resembles the form of the story you include on your webpage. If memory serves me right, Adam had a military connection with the White House at the time, and may have heard the story from Robert Todd himself.
Then, again, in Richard Lockridge's "Darling of Misfortune" (1932), there is the briefest of mention of the story, saying only the Edwin saved the son of the man who his brother John would later kill.
What I find odd is that Asia Booth Clarke, Edwin's sister, makes no reference to the story at all in her biography of her brother which she wrote as part of a series of bios on great American actors. It may be that Edwin never told her the story, or that she decided not to include it as a snub for the treatment the family underwent following the assassination. Whereas Edwin may have been respected and allowed to remain at house arrest, the rest of the family fared worse. The older brother, June, and Asia's husband spent almost a month in a jail cell. And, while Edwin may have been content with house arrest, the rest of the family was not. Especially when they were all confined in their mother's home in NYC. The Booths were not a small family.
This has been a rather long answer, with a few extra bits thrown in. Hope they help. I, myself, am searching for a copy of the article from The Century Magazine. I want to include some of the text in my play that I am writing about Edwin's life.
If you have any leads on anything else that has connection to Edwin, I would be more than happy to learn of them.
I will visit your website every so often to see if there's anything new.
Have a good life,
Bert
3/10/03
Jonah - Highlight of my weekend to discover your site! I laughed out loud at a couple parts of your limited edition art prints critique. I, too, had seen a flyer with that Gallon painting of the town burning in the distance (being "nuked") and wondered why anyone would want to display such a thing.
I can see it in a museum, but not in a private home. (Unless somebody hated the town of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, or something like that.)
I had the good fortune of having Mort Kunstler respond to a "snail mail" letter I sent to him once. I was sympathizing with him after Don Troiani had taken sort of a veiled potshot at him in a Civil War magazine article. To make a long story short, it was just a case of Troiani preaching the obsessive historical accuracy gospel again. I joked about how the belt buckles would have to have their origin and history recorded in the accompanying literature, it would seem. Well, people are entitled to their opinions.
I just can't see the point of excruciatingly authentic art. Real art, it seems to be, can be independent of hobnails on the bottoms of brogans, etc.
I'm in Minnesota which is pretty removed from the re-enacting scene, although there is a First Minnesota Regiment group which I saw at a parade. Women with infants complained about the loud noises of the guns.
I used to reenact with the 1st Minnesota in Maryland (1984-1985) and saw your guys a number of times for events down there. (I also used to write articles for their newsletter - see entry for 3/10/03.)
I'm trying to encourage discussion of the "Gods and Generals" movie, which, alas, is not going to be a classic. It can't even hold a candle to "Gettysburg," I feel, although the re-enacting community may like it. The new movie has the same problem as art prints. It's so scared of having one hair out of place in terms of historical accuracy, it forgot that it had to be a good movie.
The new movie falls short of "Gettysburg" in every respect I can think of. Will there be a "Part 3" no matter how badly the current movie bombs? Who will Stephen Lang play in Part 3? Jefferson Davis? I'm irritated by the fact that Lang, who did such a great job as Pickett in "Gettysburg," turned around and played Stonewall. They should have found a completely fresh actor for Stonewall. I'm also amused that two very well-known critics completely disagree on whether Duvall or Sheen made a better Lee. My own opinion: Sheen. Duvall had the advantage of being a winner in the new movie (i.e. winning battles), while Sheen had to taste defeat, but I felt Sheen was much better, exuded more personality. I've read where Lee had an "effeminate" air about him, in a certain way. Sheen was much more like that.
Is it just me, or did the new movie lack the high-pitched "Rebel yell," which was so noticeable in "Gettysburg?" Did someone get to Ron Maxwell and say that the yell made the southerners look like a bunch of screaming idiots?
Good questions. Perhaps somebody thought it was undignified or something...
Also of interest: Every Civil War movie in which Ted Turner is involved has the song "Bonnie Blue Flag" inserted prominently somewhere. Turner's cameo is part of the newest rendition. In the "Hunley" movie, Donald Sutherland led people singing the song in a Charleston theater as shells were falling on the city. In "Gettysburg" it was an instrumental. (It's interesting how the Confederates could tote along musical instruments, presumably with valve oil etc., when half of them were starving.) If Maxwell has succumbed to putting a Confederate "spin" on this trilogy, how will this be handled in "Last Full Measure," when presumably the Union takes over and wins?
He'll have the version Union lyrics to Bonnie Blue Flag playing, I guess.
I read the book "The Killer Angels" before I saw "Gettysburg," and can fully see why Ken Burns was so inspired by it. It was a great book. The Burns series was great. "Gettysburg" the movie was great.
Well, we part company there. I thought it was boring.
Why couldn't it just end there? "Gods and Generals" is where they Jump the Shark! I read the paperback of "The Killer Angels" and found so many typographical errors, I started over at the beginning to document them, and then wrote a letter to the author care of the publisher.
The standard for printed English isn't what it was thirty or forty years ago. I find typos all the time in printed works. I blame a declining grammatical education in the US. People don't know how to parse sentences or spell anymore, and they think it doesn't matter. It does!
I then read about two days after sending the letter that the author was dead. Was the letter forwarded to the son, who presumably wrote the new book? I don't know; I never got an answer. I say "presumably" because I have a sneaking suspicion a ghostwriter may have been involved. Through reading on the web I learned that the son's professional background was not in writing and that he had never before written a book. I cannot believe that he just sat down and turned out "Gods and Generals." If I'm wrong, may lightning strike me.
I purchased one Dale Gallon and one Mort Kunstler art print, both accenting Union subject matter. It's amazing how the Union stuff is buried under the flood of Confederate topics. You might say the Union paintings are a "loss leader" in the field. Joshua Chamberlain seems to be the only real marketable Union character. Back when I followed this field, U.S. Grant seemed to be nonexistent. Grant was a "brass tacks" leader who eschewed the pageantry of war, thus he is of little interest to the artists.
I like the Grant art that came out just after the Civil War. Engravings, that sort of thing.
I think it's neat to be a Civil War enthusiast, as long as you put it in its proper perspective, in that we are 100 per cent distanced from the events depicted, and that a sober assessment would have these subjects pushed from our collective memory as much as possible, such was the tragedy and pain entailed. But as a writer once observed, the battlefield had an "eerie beauty" to it.
Many battlefields do. I am now heavily into studying ancient Troy, a place I would love to visit.
It's been fun writing this e-mail. I'm just wrapping up my "Sunday night shift" here at the Morris Sun Tribune in Morris, Minnesota, where I'm the associate editor.
Your text betrays your occupation!
Morris, incidentally, has an old home that was built by the son of Secretary of War Stanton. It has a stately quality but is deteriorating. If I remember the story right, the son was heading west, fell ill, and liked the hospitality here so much he settled here. I believe he eventually moved on (persuaded by his wife, if I recall right, because maybe she didn't like this "Gopher Prairie" existence.) We also have a miniature version of the "Running Rifleman" statue (from Gettysburg) at our local cemetery, because the man who posed for the sculpting of that statue lived here. The story is that this person served in place of someone else who had bought his way out of the war, thus the man was known as both "Smith" and "Zimmerman," one being his real name, the other the name of his "sponsor" as it were. I'll keep reading your site in the future!
Brian Williams
Morris, Minnesota
Thanks! I'll keep posting things to it. - Jonah
3/5/03
Dear unknown mystery dude:
I love the tampons jokes may I order 5,000,000,000,000,000 of them I really like the laser guided ones. You see I have this friend in the rebs who keeps making fun of my shiny brass soooooooooooo..................... I need some.
all for the Union
Ryan Miller
1st Independent Ky. light artillery
Send me cash and I'll send you a tampon. - Jonah
3/5/03
Jonah:
As I was going through your website (and laughing my ass off at some of the articles), I came upon the "Annoying Re-enactors" that included the "elder statesmen of reenacting" due to the 125th anniversary of the Civil War.
Well, WWII re-enactors have now the same problem now, we've got the re-enactors that attended the 50th anniversaries of D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge events in 1994. I know this because I was present at the 50th anniversary of D-Day at Virginia Beach.
I too, have found myself foolishly pontificating about "how great the battle was...." at some recent WWII events I've attended like I'm some "all-knowing" idiot. Thanks for that article.
Jay Sproat
Thanks for the kind comments! The article you refer to was written by Jeff Hendershott. I wrote the original one and he did a follow-up. I guess we're easily annoyed...
I guess the warning is that we all can suffer from being pompous old fools if we're not careful. Maybe the best thing in life is to become proficient in one thing and, before Elder Statesmanship sets in, go on to a new thing as an amateur?
Jonah Begone
12/9/02
In your Vernors article, you write,
"Believe it or not the technique and formula remains: Vernors is still aged for years in 47-gallon oak barrels. ...
The exact ingredients are a closely-held corporate secret. It's safe to assume there's ginger or ginger flavoring in there and perhaps also cinnamon. .... "
They say,
Ingredients: carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup and/or sugar, natural and artificial flavors, caramel color, citric acid, sodium benzoate (a preservative) (http://www.bevnet.com/reviews/vernors/facts.asp)
"Corn" syrup was not used widely until after 1906. Dr. Wiley, who worked on the first Food and Drug Act, was highly opposed to it as a food adulterant that it is. We know now that it triggers fat storage and increase triglycerides, unfortunately it is in damn near everything, including some spaghetti sauces!
In short, I doubt the original recipe included ANY of the current ingredients except 'water.' Perhaps the 'natural ingredients' is ginger, perhaps not! Who can say? They don't. Seems like they would if it were true as it would be a selling point, wouldn't it?
Sorry, I don't mean to offend, I'm just a stickler for the facts. Best wishes. :-)
Allen Whipps
I got the phrase "the technique and formula remains" from the Old Farmer's Almanac, my original source for the article. I suppose the company has updated the formulation somewhat. For instance, Coke used to be made with "sugar," period. Now they - like Vernor's - have switched to corn syrup because it's cheaper. Is the taste the same? We cannot know. The original tasters are all dead! But it's safe to assume that the "natural flavors" are their trade secret (like Coke's) and they won't give that away to satisfy curiosity! - Jonah
12/9/02
I just thought I would let you know that your review of the Civil War art was completely stupid. They are both disgraceful and uneducated. Simply put, you are a moron.
Josh McCain
p.s. Thank you for including me on your wonderful web page! You're still a moron.
11/20/02
My name is John R Walker, founder of the DCDDR - the first Warsaw pact reenactment group in the USA. I found you through this page: Reenactors: America's Strength in Reserve!. You mentioned Warsaw Pact reenactors and I was intrigued, being that I started the first group in the USA. With your statement made on your web page about going to war with reenactors we are ready to join the call. Although we kind of have to do this anyway because most of us are active duty military.
I founded the D.C.D.D.R. Grenztruppen on June 25, 2001 as a Warsaw Pact collecting and reenacting group, based in the Washington, DC area. Our club name, which stands for the "District of Columbia German Democratic Republic Border Guard", was formed by a group of local amateur historians and collectors that, in conjunction with our brother organization the DDR Militaria Club, now boast worldwide membership. Both these internet-based clubs are dedicated to the education and preservation of this era in history.
Our members have received the honor of appearing in full uniform to provide visual and informational accompaniment to the Newseum's Berlin Wall display and as an Honor Guard for the pre-opening party at the International Spy Museum. We are currently working on future events with Mr. Francis Gary Powers Jr., founder of the Cold War Museum.
Yours truly,
John R Walker
Founder of the DCDDR
11/14/02
Dear Mr. Begone,
I recently visited your excellent web site, and looked at the ghost in the room link. Sir, I very nearly dirtied my trousers! Keep up the good work, please.
Sincerely,
Pvt. Adam Clark, 31st Indiana Regiment Co. "E" of Volunteer Reenactors...
ps. Your response would make me as happy as battalion drill on a humid summer day! Please respond...
Looks like a mixed message to me, but, nevertheless, here is my response.
Something even scarier than the ghost in the room is this.
Jonah Begone
4/1/01
Dear Sir,
I just read your closet pacifist article, and with a few exceptions, I agree wholeheartedly.
I am a veteran of the uniformed services, though not a combat veteran, and I agree with you about some of the inconsistencies in The Hobby. I recently attended my first real living history event at Andersonville, playing a federal prisoner (my unit is a dual impression unit). I think this event is must for all reenactors, so they understand the horror of the "good old days".
I believe reenactors should spend more time reading diaries; they would see that even after "hardening" soldiers were still weary of the death and destruction they saw as daily life.
Why am I in the hobby? I enjoy living out a small part of the past, but I like the ability to transcend the modern world and escape... reenacting is escapism, pure and simple. I enjoy the camaraderie of my unit, and yes, I like the excitement of a battle.
Part of me wants to get to know the life of the soldier, but more of me likes to just get out of our modern fast-paced world and enjoy the outdoors with good friends who have a similar interest. I am not a hardcore. I try to be as authentic as I can be... but I enjoy the hobby more with my new (and new-to-reenacting) wife along with me.
"No one desires peace more than the soldier, for he must pay the ultimate sacrifice in war" - Gen. Douglas MacArthur
Robert W. Hughes
Co. G 28th GA Inf/Co D 123d NY Inf
2/1/01
Dear Jonah,
It does seem a bit strange to be writing to a man who wears a paper bag over his head and uses an alias name conjuring up images of whales that swallow men (which of course leads to stories of puppets with long noses).
It's okay once you get used to the muffled sound of my voice and the lack of facial responses.
It is also with a degree of embarrassment that I admit to having quoted you several times in speaking engagements, and having referred those quotes to the alias "Jonah Begone" never once suspecting its bogus nature. Well, people have said of me: "He's smarter than he looks - but then, he'd have to be."
Well, see, that's why I wear a bag.
Anyway, I thoroughly enjoy your writings and was thrilled to find your website, really quite by accident--as seems to be the case with most discoveries in my life. My favorite article is Aging Children of Reenacting, and I have quoted that extensively, at school presentations and at women's group luncheons in Pasadena - where, I'm afraid, much of the audience was over eighty, sound asleep and snoring, or pitching from their seats onto the floor.
My articles have that very same effect on me.
You seem a man somewhat of my own dilemma (and possibly dementia): Drawn always to the Civil War, and at the same time examining the peculiar behavior and asking why? (Some of the guys in my reenacting unit are getting quite tired of my questions in this area, I think.)
This doesn't surprise me. The only people other than you and I who intellectualize about reenacting are academics - and they invariably ruin everything they touch.
In recent reenacting years I have also been embroiled in a mid-life crisis phase of life, so some unkind people tell me (family members mostly). I don't necessarily believe that - and I certainly don't want to hear it.
Oh, I can tell you all about MLC for males; I'm going through it now myself. It's real. Sometimes, sitting at my desk at work, I get these overwhelming waves of despair and anxiety over the passing of time. It seems to happen most often in the summer months, for some reason. My guess is that it's because I'm not playing any rugby in the summer - the regular seasons are spring and fall. Anyway, MLC seems to be alleviated somewhat by exercise.
But I have been working on a website, when time permits, currently bearing the long title: Off To the Civil War - The Search for John Wesley Hargrave - (or How I survived my mid-life crisis). The site can be found at civilwarsaga.homestead.com. The site is a Civil War reenacting, Wilder's Brigade ancestor research, and mid-life crisis story, all thrown into one jumbled concoction; or as I sometimes coin the abbreviated title: "Off To The Civil War -- A Mid-life Crisis Adventure" (Portions of this work were previously published.)
Anyway, as my web story is slowly translated into the virtual world, out there somewhere, I would probably like to quote you at some point, and perhaps add a link to your site on my home or links page. I was hoping that would be Ok with you.
That's fine with me!
I also have a Civil War musket storage box web site, where I sell musket crates with a somewhat vintage, semi-authentic look--I suppose at ridiculous prices. It is actually just a hobby with me, not a vocation. I find just enough business from it to afford me a day's worth of mental activity and exercise once a month (that works out to about two boxes-which is all I care to do). I would like to put a link to your website there also. You can check this site out at musketboxes.homestead.com. You can also get there from the civilwarsaga.homestead.com site.
Well, that's all for now, unless I hear back from you - in which case you may never see the end of my correspondence. So be careful.
Thank you for all of your humor, entertainment, and great writing.
Very best regards,
Ron Safstrom
Thanks for writing, Ron! - Jonah
1/19/01
Jonah,
Hello! I just wanted to drop you a note to tell you that I really enjoy your site!! Even though I am very green in the hobby, I laugh so hard at some of the things I can relate to in the stories. I've gotten so in to the hobby in this my first year, buying over $1300 in stuff, my unit named me the sutler whore. Keep up the good work and may I'll run in to you at an event one day... brown bag and all!
Take care!
Michael L. Colosimo
105th Pennsylvania
10/30/00
Jonah,
By sheer chance I happened to stumble across your page on LHAPs and decided to read it through. I haven't laughed this hard in some time! Your observations were very direct and, well, valid - to use a much-abused phrase from the world of art criticism.
I often run across these items in galleries and have been moved to wonder just who buys them. Alas, your page doesn't really answer that question but I do feel like you've done a better job of point out their sheer foolishness than I ever could.
Best regards,
Ken Strayhorn
Duke University
Durham NC
P.S - if it matters, I'm a life-long Southerner.
4/4/00
Hello Jonah,
The weather is cold and rainy. I'm unable to work on the house so I thought I would surf.
A few years past I was really into reenacting. However, to use Matt Stylo's words, the "hardcores vs. farbs" got to be a little much.
Well, I've moved on to a respectable computer job. The "reenacting" bug bit me. However, this is not mere Civil War reenacting. I'm building a German Fokker Eindecker EIII of the great war. Here is a link to the aircraft web site http://www.airdromeaeroplanes.com
When I finish my aircraft, I look forward to lazy flights over the Michigan countryside. Also, I can have the happy thoughts of being invited to attend three or four local airshows per year. The going rate is free hotel rooms, free meals, two free fill ups of gas, and VIP treatment at the airshows.
It sure beats paying $7 for straw and water at a reenactment.
Best of luck on your site. I love your writing.
Wilhelm, the Michigan Baron
...and good luck to you, Wilhelm. Perhaps some day I'll see you buzzing by... - Jonah
3/19/00
J.B. --
I recently stumbled upon the your site: a fortuitous accident. Truly the most entertaining time-sink in cyberspace. I'm thrilled that someone in the reenactment (note: not 'living history') community has the sanity and intelligence to point out so eruditely that the proverbial emperor is underclothed.
And I say this as an intermittent reenactor (WWII--like C.W. but the scary rednecks wear SS camo), in fact one who enjoys the whole business in small doses, and as one of the precious few 'real' historians (thanks for making that distinction) running around in repro garb.
I hope your work has the cleansing effect on the hobby it deserves to. At the least, it's thought-provoking and hugely entertaining.
Keep up the great stuff!
Dr. John Schindler
2/14/00
Jonah,
I just wanted to drop a line to say hi, and of course to put in my comments about your site.
I know this probably sounds totally UnCivil Warish, but I'm the bugler in our group. And yes I am a girl.
It may sound un-Civil War-ish but it sounds completely Civil War reenactingish!
First, my unit is called the First Illinois Light Horse Artillery. We are cavalry and artillery combined, and instead of wearing the yellow of a cavalry soldier we wear the red of an artillery soldier. I am told that it was not a real unit during the Civil War. Have you ever heard of a unit by that name?
Nope.
And also were there units of mounted artillery?
Uh... I'm not sure. Artillery units had horses to pull the equipment, of course, but I don't think they were referred to as "mounted." (That conjures up some funny images.)
I've been looking on the internet, because I've just recently become interested in finding out.
I just finished reading some of the previous letters sent to you, and something someone said caught my eye. I believe it was the 14 year old Yankee from Mississippi looking for a unit. But he made a comment along the lines of something about gun grabbers. I agree with him. The government is getting worried about gun control, and I'm concerened for our hobby. Would the governments passing of a gun control law effect our hobby in any way?
It depends on what kind of gun control law it is. There are many gun control laws on the books right now, and we still reenact.
If so in which ways??
It depends. It's a complex issue. The state and federal laws are often a tangled mess.
No more muskets or pistols??
It depends. But so far nobody seems willing to stop historical reenactments, unless it's an unintended consequence.
How can we reenact without them?????
We cannot reenact credibly without muskets!
Would the passing of a law seriously jeopardize out hobby and in the worst case shut us down????
Oh, I suppose this is possible. Not likely, but possible. When historical programs - which are popular with the public - get shut down because of unintended consequences of gun laws, there's media coverage and a disgruntled public.
Now on a happier note I just wanted to say that I love your site. I go to it at least once a week just to jump on the new news.
Thank you. I have made it easier to find what you're looking for by adding a search box; something I've wanted for a long time. Now I need to title all the articles so people don't get all "no title" returned from searches.
Oh and before I go I wanted to add that I loved the Ross Kimmel Centenial Memoirs.
I liked them, too. There's a lot of good comments about them in the Camp Chase Gazette, too.
I'm sure I've talked your ear off by now, and I'm sorry for that. I'm often told I talk too much, and I guess it's true. I'll let you go for now, and hope that you have a chance to get back to me on my questions.
Carol Netemeyer
1st Illinois Light Horse Artillery
Bartelso, IL
Thanks, Carol!
Jonah Begone
2/1/00
Hello Jonah
Enjoy your work. It adds a sense of reality to this great hobby of ours. (Yes I did say "reality". I spent almost 30 years working for the Department of Defense and believe me, your viewpoint is closer to military reality than you can imagine.)
One show I'd like to add to your tv critique is an episode from the Twilight Zone called "An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge". That was one chilling episode!!!!!!
Keep up the good work and see hope to see ya at sea someday.
Dan Cashin
WBS Naval Reenactor
I mention "Occurance" briefly in my first movie article. It's the only French Ambrose Bierce short story adaptation that doesn't suck! It was also used as an episode in Twilight Zone, but started life as a movie short subject. The same "He (or she) is dead but doesn't know it" theme is found in one of my all-time favorite horror films, "Carnival of Souls" as well as the recent film "The Sixth Sense." It's also the theme in the film "Jacob's Ladder" and the more obscure "Lulu on the Bridge." I'm pretty sure an excellent film noir features this, too: "Point Blank." Oh, it's also the connecting story in the British horror anthology "Dr. Terror's House of Horrors." Come to think of it, it was also the main theme of a couple of Twilight Zone episodes, "The Hitch-Hiker" and "The Passerby."
Gee, I guess it's time to give the idea a rest! - Jonah
1/18/00
Dear Jonah
I recently read the article 'Battle Acts' by Tony Horwitz that you posted on your site, and I was prompted to write to you about a couple of things that puzzled me.
Firstly, allow me to introduce myself. I have only been doing this re-enacting lark for around four years over here in the UK - so I'm still pretty new at it.
A U.K. reenactor... that's interesting. I've always been fascinated by the fact that people in a nation with so much history would choose to reenact the American Civil War!
If you were to take a scale from 'farb' through 're-enactor' to 'hard core', I guess I would be near the 'hard core' end of 're-enactor'. That is to say that I strive to give an authentic impression of a soldier from the 1860's without sharing the masochism of the true 'hard core' enthusiast.
My clothes are grubby-looking (stained with wood-dye to look dirty, but freshly laundered after every event)
...and there you vary from the American super hard core in that they don't have their clothes laundered at all!
and I try to eat authentic food (bread, cheese and chicken mostly, with fresh corn as a snack). I tend towards the 'tubby bearded guy' in appearance, but as I portray an officer - the company surgeon, to be precise - I feel I can get away with being slightly better fed (although I would prefer to shed a few more pounds).
Okay, that makes sense.
Now without wishing to disparage other enthusiasts, I found myself confused by a few things that were mentioned in the article.
Firstly, this idea of pissing on your buttons in order to give them an authentic 1860's patina. Surely the oxidation seen on buttons from that period has developed during the time that they have been kept in museums. Back in 1861 those buttons would be pretty shiny and new, so wearing buttons that look 150 years old is wrong, surely. In all of the photographs I have seen from that period, the buttons look bright. O.K. so the average soldier probably wouldn't have had time to polish them, but they would certainly not be covered in verdigris, I would think.
I have never understood this either, and I have no light to shed on the matter. As I general rule, I try to minimize the weirdness I encounter at events, so I stay away from the hardcore wackos. Needless to say I don't challenge them on the subject of green buttons, which makes no sense to me, either.
Secondly, I have never read anything about the practice of 'spooning' in any of the books that I have used to research my role. It is certainly true that both officers and men would roll up in blankets and lie on the bare earth when on campaign, but not once have I come across the term. Perhaps it was something they thought it best not to document.
I've encountered it before in CW literature, but I can't remember where. Maybe in "Hard Tack and Coffee," maybe in a book like it. But it is mentioned.
Having said that, I personally have never spooned with anyone but my wife, thank you very much. (But then, I play rugby, so I am a second row forward - which is just as much body contact with other males as spooning, so I really can't talk.)
Thirdly, in his account of the breakfast of salted pork provided by Rob Hodge he described it as tasting 'like a soggy cube of salt' which leaves me to think that it had been simply taken out of a haversack and fried. As I understand it, this was not the case in the war. The pork was salted in order to preserve it, but in order to eat it you had to soak it in water overnight to remove most of the salt and then fry it the next day. Nobody in 1860 would think of trying to eat salt pork 'as it was'.
Very true. At one of my very first events in Utah I bought some fatback and tried to eat it without removing the salt with a good amount of water. It didn't work. It was a memorable dining experience. So the next time I hung it in a river in a bag for a few hours, which resulted in a product somewhat more digestible. I gave it up entirely as being too much of a pain (both preparationwise and indigestionwise).
remember reading an account of the 4th Texas (the unit that I am a member of) being surprised by an attack just before they were about to eat, and they were forced to march on hungry because the food was in the process of being prepared, which also made it impossible to take with them. Cornflour had been made into dough but not cornbread, meat was soaking but uncooked, etc. .
Finally, the thought that struck me hardest was that the soldiers that suffered the privations of war did not do so willingly, but were forced to endure it by circumstance. If they had been given the option of sleeping in a nice warm cabin or shivering in a cold muddy ditch, my bet is they would choose the former.
Of course - they weren't fools!
Ironically, my feeling is that if those 'hard core' men of the war could be magically transported to a modern re-enactment they would instantly become the biggest 'farbs' in the area! "Forget head-lice, give me an RV and some cold beer!" would replace the 'Rebel Yell'.
Well, they didn't really have "reenactments" per se when the real soldiers were alive, but they did have encampments. (Oftentimes on the battlefields.) And guess what? They stayed in big tents with camp furniture. Not merely because they were old, I think, but because they had had enough of camping privation. (A refrain I hear from a lot of Vietnam veterans is, "I did enough of that during the war. No thank you.")
I suppose that none of this really matters as long as the participants are having fun - however they define it, which is the point of the whole exercise after all. Isn't it?
Richard Edwards
(a.k.a. Surgeon Major John C Jones, 4th Texas)
Yes. One man's privation is another man's recreation!
Thanks for writing!
Jonah
1/4/00
Stumbled onto your article "But is It Art?" this morning. Thank you! I kept wondering if it was just me or why it is that much of the historical art done nowadays fills me with wonder at the artist's eye for detail, but little else. For all the authenticity, there is little soul.
Agreed, agreed, agreed.
No wonder "Scotland Forever!" makes my pulse quicken, and the Gettysburg Cyclorama continues to thrill me, despite the many inaccuracies in both works. They have soul; they're rooted in the firm conviction that art should move us in some way. The French revolutionary artist David seems to have known this too.
Yes - David's art helps me to understand the passions behind the French revolution better than anything else!
TW, who would you consider the finest "historical artists," both living and dead - those whose work transcends being genre artists? Thanks again.
>+-:-) Rob Weaver
Hmmm - good question! Well, I like Frederick Remington, of course - despite the fact that he painted brass grommets on shelter halves! (It's true. I saw the original in the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.)
Ilya Repin is a wonderful Russian historical artist. I included his painting of the Murder of the Tsarevich because it moves me at the enormity of the crime, but his other paintings are masterful, too. (He did one of some Cossacks that compelled me to buy a Borodin LP which featured it as cover art.)
David, of course.
Uh, who was that Victorian fellow who painted the standing Federal soldiers firing rounds at the viewer? I like that a lot... name escapes me. Gilbert Gaul.
A gulity pleasure of mine is Arnold Friberg! I get a kick out of his Book of Mormon paintings. Even the children are buff.
August Saint-Gaudens in sculpture, of course. His "Shaw's Colored Regiment" has been rightly called the greatest single American sculpture. (His coinage designs weren't bad, either!)
I must admit a fondness for the guy who used to do paintings for the National Geographic books. Name escapes me. His Civil War image was the VMI cadets. He also did one of the Battle of Hastings that I liked. Oh, what's his name? (Another "senior moment.") Tom Lovell! That's it!
George Caleb Bingham. I like "the Jolly Flatboatmen."
I understand it's now okay to express an admiration for the work of Norman Rockwell, so I will. (If you want to label me bourgeois, go ahead, but it's rare to find an artist so skilled in human expression.)
Grant Woods. (Perhaps not a "historical artist.")
I'll stop here.
Jonah Begone
12/20/99
Hello, My name is Tyler Underwood I am a union re-enactor with the 64th O.V.I. and I have looked at your site many times and I think you have some very funny things.
Thanks!
I am e-mailing you because I have a complaint about straw and hay bales that are used at events. I can understand the importance of having them for camp, but when you walk into camp and see so-called hardcore re-enactors with bales laying around I just have to laugh at them. I am not sure if people realize that there was know such thing as hay or straw bales during the time of the Civil War.
As for me, I know that there was such a thing as straw, so I happily strew it around in my tent to sleep on. But you're talking about the square bales.
And the thing that I really get a kick out of is when you see them on the battlefield and the men are using them for cover to shoot behind.
It wouldn't do a real good job of stopping a bullet!
You see these hard cores (and they call others farbs) but what they don't know is that they are hiding behind a product that came from machinery that wasnt invented until the 1920's. So if you could knock on the use of bales in re-enactments I would appreciate it. Thanks
Cpl. Tyler Underwood
64th Ohio
Actually, I tend to leave people alone about authenticity. There are so many others who are willing to take up rhetorical cudgels for that cause... - Jonah
10/31/99
Dear Jonah:
After spending about three hours on-line reading snippets of your page, let me say, with all sincerity:
WOW!
I am very much impressed w/ your work as a historian, a living historian, and a eagle-eyed critic of historic reenactment. Your pithy opinions, background work tracing down "farb," and web publication of the memoirs of Ross M. Kimmel has undoubtedly earned you a significant number of footnotes in my eventual doctoral dissertation. These items are also going to provide me wonderful ammunition in a CW conference I'm attending next week at the Huntington Library, especially as I already know of two papers to be read on reeenactment come from the pens of PC scholars w/ agendas....which are apt to be deflated by primary evidence from your prolific pen.
While you may or may not have seen my contact letter to historical reenactors, taken part in my CW reenactor survey, or seen me mentioned in
the CCG as regards my research....I am another one of those "academics" who is interested in reenactors. Not as a class of others to laugh at, nor as a group to study like anthropologists among naked tribesmen; rather, I expect by looking at civil war reenactors to be able to compare and contrast how academics and the public act to construct history.....good, bad, or indifferent. Yes I know it's a hobby, living history was a hobby for me until I tuned in, turned on, dropped out to get a MA in public history (writing a thesis on applied living history), and semi-formally turned pro. Not that has slowed me down (....that took AGE...), rather it gives me a little perspective and a wider variety of groups to be considered weird by.
I have already managed to get close to 900 responses to my reenactor survey, which I am in the process of roughing up into a chapter on "who are the reenactors?" as well as a much briefer version for an article for CCG. In doing this writing, I realized...Hey, Jonah Begone is a pseudonym! (sometimes I amaze myself)Unfortunately, as an academic & researcher I need to really probe my sources. So: What name goes in the brackets after "Jonah Begone, pseudo."? Yes, I know you want to remain anonymous. No, I don't intend to "out" you with the reenactor community. However, unless there is some reason why you would not want your name enshrined in the back bibliography of a dry academic tome, why not claim the credit you deserve, and spare me the grief
of turning loose the bloodhounds?
Your new fan,
Mark L. Shanks
9/29/99
My buddy Jonah,
The young "yankee" in Mississippi looking for a federal unit [See below] might like to know that most of the federal units in Mississippi are just galvanizing confederates. For instance, my unit, The 46th Mississippi also portrays The 2nd Kentucky whenever needed. .....and Jonah.....SOME Confederate reenactors (....infantry) are intelligent people who respect both the Union and the Confederates. AND I would like to stress that doing an ACCURATE portrayal of a federal uniform is in my opinion, ALOT easier than pulling off an accurate potrayal of a confederate. I think that my federal uniform is just about perfect, and I bought it all at once. But the confederate uniform is a little more difficult, and for those of us who do reenacting because we enjoy history, it offends ME to see "redneck rebs" running around (without the horses they don't even have!!) shooting seven pistols. I would like to think that my confederate ancestors were a little more intelligent and had a little more dignity than these buffoons who give confederate reenactors a bad name.
Your confederate bud,
9/17/99
Hello oh great one,
Thank you,
Will,
Jonah has heard your plea in the wilderness and takes pity upon you for your youth.
I am unfamiliar with reenacting in Mississippi, and who's who and what's what. As much as I hate to suggest it, you might strike up a conversation with that reb reenactor in your classes, and ferret some information from him.
The following is a suggested approach:
You: "Hi,
Reb reenactor: "Yeeeeeeeeee-haaaaaa! Yew bet ah did! It was fine! Killed 'em dead, yep yep!"
You: "Gee, I wouldn't expect there would be any Yank reenactors in this state. What units are they in?"
...and so on. You might even include the information that you'd like to do Yank reenacting, to give him extra targets - you know, appeal to his self-interest.
Failing that, you could search through the Federal websites located on the Camp Chase Gazette's web site (http://www.cybergate.net/~civilwar/ - look for "links to Civil War sites") for a Federal outfit in your state. There must be some. (Who are the Rebs shooting at? Each other?)
Or visit an event and head for the Yank camps.
Hope this helps. And act fast - after Columbine, the gun-grabbers will be getting more attention.
Jonah
9/2/99
Jonah,
Some of us were put on this world to bless or curse others. (I guess you know where you and I stand...)
What unit are you with?
The Camp Chase Gazette, nowadays!
And where are you from?
My hometown is Burbank, California.
Also, I'm gonna be majoring in History and minoring in Journalism in College, and I was wondering how you go started writing for
CCG. That would be something I would like to do sometime.
I started sending in unsolicited manuscripts back in 1987. I tried to make them as different as possible from everything else I saw in the magazine... this tactic worked!
And you might be pleased to know, that of the 37 people in our regiment, 22 are under the age of 25 and all members are in shape. I am proud of the my unit!
Well, good. This seems commendably authentic!
But I do agree with you on the horrible state of Confederate Reenactors.....especially the ones that do dismounted cavalry impressions, they have like fifteen pistols and a sawed off shotgun, it's ridiculous..anyways. thanks Jonah. Take it easy
Pvt Ryan Burns
Thanks for writing!
Jonah
8/31/99
Hi!
I've gone to your website a number of times now and laughed every time! Keep up the service.
Glad you like it.
I wish to respond to your article on revy war reenacting. I've done 11 years of revy war up to now and most everthing in you say is true and hilarious. I disagree on two small things - the canteens rev war uses, at least when I attend, are used for water, not just for decoration.
Yes. When I bring my canteen to events I use it, too. But what I was trying to point out was that, unlike in Civil War reenacting, where a canteen is absolutely essential and virtually all reenactors get use of of theirs, in Revy War reenacting a "show" canteen is possible. A guy in my unit has one - he only takes it to living history sit-arounds. But he needs water on hot days the same as the rest of us, and when this is the case he drinks out of his "use" canteen.
Second - the population at rev has a great range from young to old - not just generally older as you had mentioned. Rev war tends to be more family-oriented than Civil War and there are usually more children and younger moms and dads showing up. I perfer Rev war for this reason as I can bring my daughter and son with me - usually they find young ones their age to play with.
In my Revy War unit there is a "Sunshine Committee." Generally, it is composed of older folks who send cards to older members in hospitals, that sort of thing. I have never, ever encountered a "Sunshine Committee" in any Civil War unit. This - and observation - is what led me to state that Revy War tends to be grayer.
I just started Civil War recently (just a few events) and I must say - I'm hooked! I was awed by the numbers of participants. I didn't plan on it but I found that I love the higher degree of battle scenarios than you would find in rev war.
Enjoy it. When I first began reenacting the really big events were a major attraction. Nowadays I enjoy the mid-sized ones more since my expectations have decreased somewhat with experience. (Other Civil War reenacting veterans have expressed the same opinion to me.)
For now, I plan to stay with rev war - mainly because my kids love to come with me to the local living history events. I plan to stay with my
local civil war unit for some events - this will be my "Dad's only get away" thing. It would make sense to only do one era only for now -
but I like aspects of both eras and can't get myself to quit one time period.
I still do both, too, for different reasons. - Jonah
Sincerely,
7/22/99
Thanks for the absolute best laugh we've had in a good long while. Your utterly irreverent, yet dead-on take regarding our admittedly eccentric hobby is totally refreshing. Your site is a gem.
YHS,
Thank you - I'm glad you appreciate this site. Speaking as modestly as I can, I believe the main difference between this site and most others is content. I emphasize that and not bells and whistles. It is my hope that there's a lot of useable and entertaining stuff here. - Jonah
7/18/99
I'm terrible sorry...really I am...overflowing with regret, regurgitating remorse.....really. Alas, I can not think of a memorable thing to say!!!!!! I stumbled and bumbled upon your site, and...I think I'm in love with you!!!!!!!! :)
Thanks really.....you made my day..
swoon!!
Sue Neely
Well, this is the first time I've ever provoked that kind of response! - Jonah
5/14/99
Dear Jonah,
I love your articles, published and unpublished. I am the editor for my
unit's newsletter. I would like the opportunity to print your
Event-o-Meter article. I would not consider doing so without your
permission however. I do not know if you have a policy for republication
or not, but I figured it certainly can't hurt to ask.
If permission is granted, I will certainly credit the article to you.
I'll even post the address to your website.
I thank you for your consideration of this matter.
Mark Reitz
Y'all,
My attitude towards publishing my stuff in unit newsletters is go ahead and do so; it's a major reason why I set up this site in the first place! If you give me credit and add a link to this site, that would be nice, too. But I don't make anything writing and, frankly, I never expect to. (However, if you plan to make money off of something I've written, why, that's another matter!)
Jonah
5/13/99
Dear Jonah,
As a co-conspirator in the campaign to subvert the readership of the Camp Chase Gazette with irreverent humor, I want to commend you for both your acerbically delicious columns and a web site that requires possession of an IQ in excess of room-temperature to appreciate.
I'm presently completing a "diabolic dictionary" of reenacting and would like to include you and your website in the definitions. If you have a
free moment (in between blackening in the teeth on Hillary's photograph) drop me a line.
Best Regards,
3/4/99
Impressionable youth
Mr. Begone,
I am 14 and have just gotten into reenacting (up here in my state I can actually shoot!).
Good for you. I am always heartened when I read about a young person finding an interest in history, guns or camping. (Beats video games any day of the week.)
I am a Confederate but I promise never to sport a "Lee Surrendered But I Didn't" bumper sticker (When I get a car) and furthermore NEVER
to practice "the bloat"
Ahhhhh, go ahead. You're young. You can repent of it later!
I found your sight refreshing after meeting some of the people in the hobby.
Hmmm. Bumped into some oddballs, huh? Well, that happens in any hobby. Last year I took up playing rugby, and some of those guys make reenactors look tame in comparison!
Thanks for all the garbage you're filling my young mind with. Keep up the good work.
Rifle Musket
But it's not garbage! It's USEFUL FACTUAL INFORMATION!
Okay, maybe the piece about crucifixion reenacting is garbage...
Jonah
1/29/99
Jonah,
Hello! I think your site is hysterical, but it's not like no one's ever told you that before :) I don't even do reenacting, or particularly like the Civil War.... I was reading the new article on why people dress up, and thought one sentence was especially amusing: What motivates a person to dress in wool clothing in the heat of summer?
Why, because it's recreational, of course. It's fun. Really. The same impulse convinces people it's fun to take a dip in semi-frozen water in the middle of winter (The Polar Bear Club).
I have often wondered this myself, and not about you guys. I do horse shows, and I think I can sympathyze with that covered in wool in 90+ degree heat feeling.... And I used to think the regualr outfit of light wool jacket, pants, knee-high leather boots, black hat and gloves was
bad - now I've taked up sidesaddle and that seems like air conditioning!
Generally speaking, those riding pants will make your butt look better than CW trousers will.
Now I get a much heavier wool jacket, a wool vest, some silk wraped around my neck, and a heavy wool skirt over the pants. Heat stroke, here I come! At least I get a spiffy tophat to wear instead of the hot hunt cap - just have to hope I don't fall off and squish my head!
Who cares about functionality? It's THE LOOK that's important. Just ask any British grenadier, tramping through the wilds of North America in a tall bearskin hat.
I suppose you could consider this a form of reenacting, since I end up looking like something from the 1920s, and all my stuff is period (saddle from 1905, etc.)
Yep, you're a reenactor, all right.
Now, remember, if someone asks you about the scandal in the White House, be sure to respond, "What has Coolidge gotten himself into?"
Still not as bad as I used to be, though - at age six, I insisted everyone call me Martha, because I couldn't very well be George Washington. I had an outfit and everything. Years later, my mother would have people come up to her and ask how Martha was....
Ah, see, you have the calling after all. It's like being a nun. You either know you're meant to be one or you're not.
Wish I had more money, so I could actually do some reenacting.... Guess I'll have to be content with passing out in my layers of wool!
...as do we all...
Well, I'll shut up... Great page, I hope you never take it down!
Michelle :-)
Perhaps, perhaps, but Revolutionary War stays flatter every woman. (Well, perhaps "flatter" isn't the right word. Sort of "up-and-outs" them might be more appropriate.)
Jonah
12/14/98
Jonah:
In the interests of historical accuracy, you might be interested to know that the S.B. Buckner who wrote the julep letter was the "son" rather
than the "grandson" of the civil war general. If you're counting up, yes it is a very long generation. See http://www.thebucknerhome.com/genealogy.htm.
I have, of course, fixed my article. I don't mind people accusing me of wearing farb clothes, but farb articles, well, that's beyond the pale.
Too, if you're interested, the background that prompted the julep letter is recounted
Simon Bolivar Buckner IV
Thanks for the correction. I encourage my readers to follow up on this link - it's interesting! - Jonah
11/12/98
Jonah,
I would like to add an addendum to my letter of 8-11-98. After my
company's HR Manager made me take down my pictures of me in my
reenacting uniform and those of my unit (Federal unit), I in turn took
down all my pictures and put a small flag stand with the US flag and
the State of Georgia flag. Shortly, thereafter, two more people did
the same thing. Maybe this was a silent show of solidarity.
After
about 2 months, the infamous, HR lady...I mean HR person,
Yes, this is correct. There are no "men" (when's the last time you heard the word "manhood" used in a positive sense?), "women" or "ladies" anymore. We're all persons, enjoying our personhood. Vive la simularitie!
called my
boss and told her to have us take down our State of Georgia flags
because they were offensive. The HR manager would not talk with me
dirrectly for fear of the possible debate. She did call my co-worker
and debated him. He told her that the International Team would need
to take down their flags. She said, no they would NOT since they are
NOT offensive and the Georgia State flag represented slavery! He
said, no it doesn't and referred her to talk to me regarding its
meaning. She declined that invitation (probably knowing she might lose
the debate with me).
Liberals and people of this stripe don't want debates or to even be informed about something they possibly did not know (if such a condition exists). They just want compliance.
So, before I left work that Friday evening, I
dropped in her box a copy of the Georgia State stautes regarding the
GA State flag. On Monday morning I got the following e-mail: "After further research, I have found the Georgia State flag to
be the legal flag of Georgia and you may put them back up. signed
XXXXX HR Manager"
You ought to inform the people of Georgia. They will no doubt be happy to hear this news.
Hoorah, finally a small victory for sanity. This
is aside from the fact that I found out that she had broken the law by
requesting they come down in the first place. Just thought you might
be interested in this update.
Pvt. Jim Butler
Here's some fun: How about playing liberal group against liberal group by calling in the ACLU? Tell them your employer is infringing upon your civil rights to free expression - just to see what happens. (My guess is the ACLU will decline with some kind of limp excuse. They're really only interested in the civil rights of ethnic minorities and non-Christians.)
Or you can put up little "Bonnie Blue Flags" and "Stars and Bars" on your desk. That ought to confuse the thin-skinned at work. Life can be difficult if you're not sure if you're offended or not... Or, better yet, put back up your Federal pix and claim you're doing a reenactment in support of African-American "Buffalo Soldiers" (or the 54th Massachusetts) then defy them to make you take it down! - Jonah
11/9/98
Dear Mr. Begone,
Although I've never seen, much less participated in ACW reenactment, (I do 16th century Spanish in La Florida), I must say that I love your
articles. I suspect that though the weapons and clothing may change from era to era, reenactors are basically the same no matter what period they are portraying.
Thanks! Yes - I have found this to be true with Revy War reenacting; the essentials remain. When the Kenneth Branaugh "Henry V" came out a reenactor friend and I went out to see it. We both had to smile during the evening-before-the-battle scenes ("...a little touch of Harry in the night"); it looked like a typical campfire scene at an event!
But enough pontificating. Your recent addition of an article on Florida Boy Scouts brings to mind my own recent experience (June) in St. Augustine with the scouts. To quote from my own newsletter editorial:
"Great fun was had throughout the day at the Fountain of Youth battlefield as the 'Heathens' (Indians) attacked the English. Later in
the day a brave company of Spaniards ( Well okay, it was 2 arquebusiers & 1 flag bearer) sought battle with the English who where drilling in a
Dutch brigade (Pikes centered with musketeers on the flanks), in spite of our later reinforcement by a squad of pike wielding boy scouts the
commands of 'run away' & 'fall down' were the ones greatly in evidence.
The scouts later provided one of the highlights of the day. When everybody was assembling at the city gates prior to the battle, it was
apparent that the scouts were weaponless. An inquiry into their disarmed state elicited the now classic response, 'Our moms went to get
the pikes.'"
Also your New Market Flag Film brings to mind a local example of symbolic reenactment cinema. I'm a living history volunteer at De Soto National Memorial (1539). Our Visitor's Center shows the 20 minute film "Legacy of a Legend" aka "These boots were made for walking." The movie contains a classic c.1966 pre PC line, "The Indians did not understand that we came in peace, all we wanted was their gold."
More importantly, the film depicts the 600 man, 220 horse, four year, four thousand mile journey of Hernando de Soto with one pair of boots. The film opens with the boots jumping of a boat into the water and claiming the land for Spain. The boots then march though a muddy swamp, are then seen in the mountains, warming themselves by the fire, and later marching though a sandy desert (still in pretty good shape though). I forget whether or not the boots are filled with rocks and tossed into the Mississippi when De Soto dies. I would have thought that this school of real low budget film making would have died out with all those reenactors willing to work for little or nothing but I caught on the History Channel a documentary on the Mississippi River featuring a Spanish Flag marching though the woods. To give the film makers (well actually video tapers) credit the flag was held by a gauntleted hand and it was a very nice gauntlet!
Sincerely,
Timothy Burke
-<):{)} (bearded conquistador smiley)
Calderon's Company
ALIQUEM DE VIA CONSULAMUS (The unofficial motto of the De Soto expedition, translated from the Latin, "Let's ask for directions")
Well, I wouldn't have thought the flag film could be surpassed, but it sounds like "Boots" does the trick. This is one film I'm going to have to see. (Being a fan of unintentional hilarity.) Thanks for the information! - Jonah
11/9/98
Hi Jonah,
Thannnnnkkkkkssssss - Jonah
11/1/98
Hey Jonah,
My family just began "reacting" (in 5 year-old lingo)
My son used to call it this!
and have had very interesting conversations and eye rolling contests with my liberal friends about the authenticity policy of our unit. We are with a small unit from western Indiana which remains all white and male. Since this was the authentic enlistment of the unit, we feel that we should stay true to it. This seems to offend non-reenactors who much prefer the rewritten kinder and gentler version of American history.
They probably feel it's more important for them to enlighten you than it is for your unit to enlighten the event-going public.
Don't be too hard on them. It must be difficult, being the moral conscience of the nation. Glad it's not me!
Indiana in the 1860's was a racist state and continued to be so after the war for many years. I hear many people here still say "colored" for a nice word and the dreaded N word for referring to black Americans.
I get the distinct impression that *every* state was what we would now call "racist" all the way up to, through and well past the war. They may still be that way.
I, of course , spend no time at all explaining to my children about the realities of the war or the honor due the men and women involved in the
conflict. I instead try to glorify war and death to them (how many times have I heard that from people who have no idea what we do) and allow them to tote around toy weapons in the hopes that they too will order a Ford F-150 with a gun rack in the back when they get that real good job at the factory working with all of the other rebel flag-waving rednecks.
What is entirely lost upon the gun-grabbers is the fact that most of us grew up with TV Western and cops and robbers violence - but somehow didn't become thugs, murderers, rapists and manslaughterers as adults. (Despite the silly false statistics feminists come up with about the slaughter of the innocents on Superbowl Sunday.)
I had a communications class from a female liberal once and she reported the results of a study that indicated that TV's influence on making people violent was greatly overstated. She reported this as if it were great news, and I indicated that such a thing was no surprise to me. I grew up with violent programming but - aside from a passion for rugby - I am a non-violent person. Gee, could something else like, say, a stable home and family have something to do with it? Duh.
Hey, why did I keep getting this annoying small message screen that said I was not down loading right when I was trying to read this site? I ain't eddicated real good like whin it cums to this here cumpooter.
I think that's Geocities trying to do something cute with those annoying popup advertisements and failing. Oh well - that's the price I pay for not paying for web space!
I enjoyed your site otherwise and am only offended by a rebel flag when the person has no idea what it really stands for.
Dianne
I'm offended by Klan use of a reb flag, but that's about it. I really don't offend very easily.
Oh, the Clintons offend me.
Jonah
8/11/98
Jonah,
I have written you previously and enjoy your writings that can inject
some fun into our hobby when it gets just too serious about petty
things!
Well, here is something that happened to me at work last week and you
won't believe it!
I bet I will.
I am a desk jockey at a large telecommunications equipment distributor
and as many people do, I work in a low-walled, cubicle.
One of those people celebrated by Scott Adams in "Dilbert." Yes, even Jonah Begone worked in a cubicle once. I did a lot of unit newsletter writing and editing in that environment.
I am happy to say I have since graduated to an office of my own, with a nice urban window view.
As many
reenactor probably do, I have a few snapshots of my Civil War
reenacting unit (Federal OVI unit) and a few pictures of me in my
uniform (also Federal)...not that that should matter whether it was
Confederate or Union.
Silly boy! Of course it matters... not to you or I, but it does to a PC Office Weenie.
Though not intentional, I have no Confederate
anarcronisms or battle flags at my desk. I was called into my Human
Resource Managers office (who is an African-American woman) and she
sat me down and said, "Someone came to me and said you have pictures
at your desk of you in the Confederacy?!"
I would have said, "No, there are no pictures of me in the Confederacy," and left it at that. Any further discussion would have highlighted the ignorance of the accuser.
I said, "Wow!, that would
make me about 155 years old!!! But, if you are talking about my
reenacting pictures of me in my Federal (ie Yankee, ie North, ie
Union) uniform...than yes, I have those pictures at my desk! Why?"
She responded, "It doesn't matter if they are pictures of Mickey
Mouse, if they offend someone, then you have to take them down."
Interesting criteria. Do you have any pictures of Mickey Mouse in a federal uniform?
I replied, "Okay, I'll take them down after you listen carefully to
the three things I have to say...1) Tell the offended individual that
they
"He," not "they." You see, you were unthinkingly being PC yourself, there. I know it's common these days to mix singular (individual) with plural (they) to avoid having to use that horrible sexist word "he" in a sentence, but it's still bad grammar. There is no gender-neutral word in English for what you wanted to say - we have to use "he," understanding that it can refer to females as well as males in the same way the word "mankind" does.
The feminists and social reconstructionists realized long ago if you can control the language you can control the debate.
are stupid, ignorant and uneducated since they don't know the
difference between Confederate and Union. Thus, they don't even know
factually what offends them!
Good point. These days offense is very cheap and common. Nearly everyone buys into it. It's gut level, not intellectual.
You could have pointed out that an uninformed opinion offends YOU.
2) I have had these photos at my desk
for three years and probably a hundred people both white and black
have seen them and none were offended! And anyone who know me, knows
this is my hobby and not avehicle for some modern agenda or bias. and
finally 3) if it weren't for my ancestors blood and sweat with over
300,000 black soldiers, I might add, we would not be having this
conversation today!"
You didn't relate what the Af-Amer woman said then. (See, that's how you can turn PC against the practitioners. They want to use the phrase "African-American?" Fine, use it, but annoyingly abbreviate it to "Af-Amer," like it's some foreign word or something, and watch the enlightened wince.)
This is very sad since many people who inquired about the pictures
usually left my desk more enlightened about the Civil War and
reenacting. But, I guess the politically correct movement is
everywhere like a plague on our society. I work in Atlanta and I will
tell you that it is really just the San Francisco of the south. You
really don't enter Georgia till you leave Atlanta!
Oh, yes, I know. Atlanta is quickly becoming the Home of the Sensitive. (Forget about all that outdated Land of the Free/Home of the Brave crap...) The last Olympic Games pretty much confirmed that.
So, I took down my pictures and put up a generic white sign that says
"POLITICALLY CORRECT WORK STATION" Hopefully, big brother is happy
now!
Pvt Jim Butler
Nope, that won't work. As long as somebody is potentially offended or has an independent thought Big Brother's work is unfinished.
Remember when the ethnically sensitive wanted to change the designation of Squaw Lake in Minnesota? The alternative "PC Lake" was offered and quickly - and angrily - rejected. (The word "squaw," in case you didn't know, was originally a slang term for female genitalia. Somehow I got through most of my adult life knowing that the term is hateful to the majority sex.)
My suggestion for combating PC is to not visibly oppose it in any way that will identify you as an ideological enemy. Subverting it is a better idea. Outwardly embrace this stuff in such a way that its silliness is all the more apparent to the layman. ("Af-Amer" is an example.) If I were you I would try to find - or make up - the goofiest Minorities in the Civil War poster you can find. Looking in the public school system for material is a good start. Refer to females as "the majority sex," that sort of thing.
Anyway, I commiserate with you, brother. I'm a Federal employee.
Jonah
7/13/98
I must say that your site is one of the most enjoyable that I've stumbled upon during my time on the internet. I've throughly enjoyed
your cynical articles
Aaron Harvey
6/23/98
Hey!
I have enjoyed the Jonah World webpage and visit often. I wanted to pass
along a few things for you that I have heard about in the last week or
so.
1. I was in Little Rock, Arkansas and stayed with a man named Don
Hamilton. He has been working for over a year establishing Civil War
markers at various skirmish and battle sites in and around Little Rock
that were almost forgotten (i.e."Old Pap" Price) and other notable
things.
Cool.
2. I saw a hilarious Simpsons ep. (I believe you mentioned this) where
the students from Springfield Elementary go to "Fort Springfield" to
witness a Civil War reenactment. Too much!:-)
My son Ulysses is a big fan of the Simpsons, but I can't say that I am. I haven't seen many episodes, but that doesn't matter since he relates them all to me.
3.Was reading about "Wilderness Tavern" in "A Stillness At Appomattox"
and the next morning, NPR specifically mentions this tavern in a piece
about Stonewall Jackson's arm! Weird, eh?
The site itself is kind of weird, too. Not spooky like at Antietam, but just sort of odd.
4.I'm a writer for a newspaper and I went and covered a memorial service
for a Confederate soldier from a nearby town. The family of the soldier
wouldn't allow the bugler to play "Taps" because it was written by a
Yankee.
That's pathetic. Many real Confederates gave up such nonsense after the war ended. What makes their descendants think they are in some way more patriotic?
5.The recent reenactment I attended in Raymond, Miss. will be shown July
1 on Primetime Live, I believe. That was a great spectacle to be sure!
6. Came across "Confederates in the Attic" at a bookstore in Little
Rock. Have you read this?
No. I refuse to buy it so I'm currently waiting for whomever has it checked out from my local library to return it so I can read it. I have thumbed through it, though. It looks hilarious!
Apparently there is a Confederate widow living
in a town about 13 miles east of here.I'll have to check that out
myself.
Keep it up. I want more, more!
Well, okay. I added stuff today and yesterday. Look here. And thanks for writing! - Jonah
Andrew West Griffin
6/3/98
Jonah,
Not only have I seen the infamous "Flag Film", but my friends and I laughed so loud and heckled the movie to such an extent that we were asked to leave the theater.
Yours in eternal condemnation of the flag film,
Martin Husk
I told you, I told you. - Jonah
5/18/98
You know i read articles from every spot on the map but, never about the
pacific northwest reeanacting members, why is this?
I have no idea. Population density, I guess.
George Pickets house still stands here in Bellingham. So we have links
to the war too.
I'll say. Did you see the Twin Peaks episodes where Benjamin Horne thought he was a Confederate general? It was one of the weirdest parts of a normally weird show.
Yes we to have our problems {like rain,rain,and yes some sun " Hey guys see it up thare" and the usual complants like " you want us to run up
that hill!!!!!!,rite" wa`re still young at this, well get thare someday, member ship is 700+ and riseing. We have some vary colorful charactors
like "bo wevil,pvt Molsen,dirtywater and deadeye,me. got the name from wining the target match with my captain`s gun!! never did use that rifle again.
You're probably better off leaving it alone.
anyway loved your article this mo. "The Vandals at the Gates" keep up
the good work and i`ll`keep up the bad spelling.
Yeah, well, I normally edit stuff I get from people but I sort of gave up with yours!
got to go can see some
white thing in the night sky!!!
Do a first person impression and pretend it doesn't exist. - Jonah
Best wishes to all from Washington st.
4/17/98
The song you posted on your EVER enjoyable web-page is, I believe, written by
Matt Merta. He has a couple of tapes out that are available at many sutlers
(not the "hardcore" sutlers!). These are under the name "Pvt. Partz" and are
collections of many similar "modern" versions of "original" CW-era songs.
Many are hilarious though some require knowing "who" they were written about
to be enjoyed. I realize that many modern take-offs on "Marching Through
Georgia" must have been written and sung, but the version you posted is
word-for-word from Matt's tape. If your interested and can't find another
source let me know and I'll see what I can do about getting you a couple of
his tapes. Keep up the good work on the page and in CCG, your always
enjoyable!
Sincerely,
P.S. Matt, is a re-enactor from Michigan and falls in with the Cumberland
Guard.
I'm always interested in the truth and have corrected things accordingly. Thank you for this information! - Jonah
4/13/98
Hey Jonah,
OK, my brother and have been reenacting for only a little over a year and a half, but have already decided Confederates are insufferable and
the rest are unbearably farby. We have decided to form a unit exclusively of Federal privates and draw lots for officer and sergeant positions (one event only - a trendy term-limit kinda setup).
I have noticed that a good number of Federals are ex-Confederates; certainly my unit had a bunch of these. Why this is is probably fodder for a future article. As far as an all-Federal private outfit is concerned, my unit made a decision very much like this as well. It makes sense and it's nice to always be in demand.
More and more we want to hide from the spectators and the generally more farby-esque members of our community. Is there anything we can do to keep from becoming the jaded writers like Jonah Begone and Mal Adroit?
Not all evolutionary stages of reenacting result in becoming like us. There are people out there who still, after 20 or 30 years in the hobby, continue to research seam threads and discuss reenactment military field maneuvers with gusto. Not only that, they still like close order drill. So there's hope for you. (If you find this type of thing hopeful.)
We are not the most authentic and consider a shelter half luxurious. But we would consider some advice to temper our "drive to hide."
No advice coming from this corner; I stopped talking to publics a long time ago. There are plenty of other wannabe educators, I figure.
Thanks,
Todd Martin
22nd Iowa Co.E (5th LA...yeah, like I'll ever go CS again)
4/13/98
Dear Mr. Begone:
I'm just now getting back into this strange business after a respite of about ten years and have certainly enjoyed your splendid web
site. It's gratifying, in a sick kind of way, to see how very little has changed.
"In a sick kind of way?" Hey, consistency is good. Just ask Dewar's Black Label - they've been running ads to that effect for years.
Reading your "TV Guide for Reenactors" articles brought to mind an episode of the Time Tunnel I saw as a kid, probably back in '68 or '69.
Your dates are off, you farb. Time Tunnel was on TV for one season only, from September '66 to April '67. (My thanks to the Internet Movie Database for this bit of information.)
They sent that poor brunette fellow in the mock turtleneck
This was James Darren, I think.
back to - what would you guess - Gettysburg! I don't remember much about the episode. I think my synaptic gaps must have fused with the enormity of it all. Come to think of it, I think I might've just seen the previews for next week's episode and never got to see it at all.
I saw the pilot episode and the one for the Titanic and lost interest, so I didn't see the Gettysburg episode.
I don't know about you, but we were literally starved for data in those days - there just wasn't much to subsist on.
I subsisted on Star Trek and reruns of Twilight Zone.
What about "Branded" with Chuck Conners? Non-Civil War but the introductory scenes were about as close as we could get on a week-to-week basis; the snare drums beating; Chuck getting the eagle buttons and shoulder straps popped off his uniform; the disgusted
officer breaking the saber into and flinging the hilt outside the doors of the fort. My friends and I watched it every week just for the
lead-in; we didn't care much for the actual show - except when Chuck started fiddling with the remnants of the saber he'd made into the
coolest of side-knives.
Most people our age remember the opening sequence and the title theme, which of course got altered to a bathroom theme: "What do you do when there's no t.p./And you have to use your hand?"
Hey, we even watched reruns of "Rawhide" just to see the kid who wore the rebel kepi around the chuck wagon.
Anyhow, thank you for the excellent work.
Glad you enjoy it! - Jonah
4/1/98
Greetings from a person who loves to write. I would just like to say "thanks" for all the good and funny stuff you write for us history nuts. I read
your articles every time I can (boring college classes and at work when the computers fail to operate). Your quotes have given me a lot of ideas for my own work.
Lots of thanks,
Glad you enjoy it, Jim! - Jonah
3/28/98
Dear Mr. Begone,
After wasting many laughing-out-loud hours reading your site, I thought that I might send you a couple of words expressing my thoughts on some things, in particular the issue of women portraying men in CW reenacting.
Firstly, let me tell you where I'm coming from. I'm a VMI grad, and supported the school in its fight to remain all-male. While at the Institute (incidently, burned in 1864 by the Union army I now "play" at) I was a member of their Civil War Roundtable/Reenacting Group. If you were at New Market in the mid-1980s, which I suppose you have been due to your references to the hilarious "flag-film", you probably shot at me a couple of times. (BTW, that film absolutely KILLS me, and is a MUST-see every time I go there!)
Why, yes, I did shoot at you. Nothing personal, of course.
Yes, I make the pilgrimage to New Market every May I can to fight it out with the Rebs and view the sacred flag film. I've been doing that since 1985! A couple of years ago I had the honor of taking my scout troop up there for a camporee, and got to see an entirely new generation freak out at the weirdness of the film.
Anyhow, I got used to the all-male, hard-marching, hard-drinking, and hard-living experience while in that group (we probably were the most
"authentic" Confederate unit out there back then: we slept on the ground, we ate REAL simple food, had 3 tents for 20 guys (!), and could
march circles around anyone else out there. I suppose we hardcore without even realizing it. And since our average age was 20, we LOOKED
like real Civil War soldiers.
Very true - you guys looked like (and still look like) what you were (and are): credible soldiers, not reenactors.
I always loved answering the spectators (and some reenactors') questions of who we were: "You guys are the VMI
Cadets? So what do you do in real life?" But I suppose now there'll be women reenactors depicting Civil War-era cadets too!
Eck.
Back to my real point though. The unit I belong to now, Company F, 2nd Rhode Island Infantry, is performing one of the most unheralded duties of all of the "Union Army". We allow women in the ranks, and as one of the few units to do so, have begun to "collect" them in ever greater numbers. I think that we now have SIX! So all of you should be thanking us! Think about this the next time you call us "The Amazon
Regiment", or ask us what the "F" on our kepis stands for. We are protecting your all-male habitat from incursions of wool-clad females!
Why, yes, a great cry of thanks is due from the reenacting fraternity - you are certainly owed it!
Be grateful we exist! And have pity on the few of us in the 2nd RIV who would prefer to NOT have women in the ranks, but have made FRIENDS with them despite this (what a quandry!). They're good people, but they're handicapped by accident of birth. Oops! My sexism is showing. My apologies.
Thanks for listening, and keep up the humor.
John McConnell
Thank you, John, for the public service you and the 2nd Rhode Island perform. The Vandals are certainly at the gates, and you have cleverly diverted them with your cunning plan. - Jonah
3/18/98
You bad boy! It's now 3:00 p.m. - the kids and hubby will soon be home and I've spent all day laughing at your stuff -- which is better than a Benny Hill marathon.
Naughty things like you need to be throttled!
PS - Loved the write-in of "My Favorite Things."
Most Sincerely,
S.A.
If you want to throttle me you'll just have to wait in line like everyone else. - Jonah
I have been reticent in not writing to you before, but I have been
Busy/Lazy/Somesuch nonsense, and have frittered away my time online
reading your homepage articles.
...a mighty fritter, indeed.
It has been enjoyable these past few years to see your humor's effect
on those in the ranks who seem to have lost theirs. As a long time
member of Vincent's Brigade and the 15th NJ, as well as 20th Me, and my
own group, the 1st Maine Veteran Volunteers, I have seen most of what
you write about first-hand.
All of my weirdness comes directly from life, I embellish very little. If you think I'm weird, so is reenacting.
I like the campaign style of reenacting primarily because I'm lazy,
don't like company streets much anymore, and generally find like company
out in the woods. It also keeps me upwind of the Porta-Johnnies.
I am currently working on a CW Yuck video that I hope to complete by
Christmas. It will have a number of scenes that will (hopefully) offend
most of the purists in our hobby one way or the other....at least it
will point out those who lack a sense of humor.
Sounds like a wonderful idea - I'd like to see such a thing.
I thought I would enclose some examples of my own CW humor for your
edification....feel free to use them, as long as I get some of the
credit/blame.....
My Favorite Things (CW Reenactors Version)
Click here to see this inspired lyric.
Q. How many Confederates does it take to change a light bulb?
...and they still don't get it right!
So as you see, Things up here in Maine are still a-winter and the cabin
fever is setting in. I do hope to be out in the contented feild soon, or
I might really go crazy.
I hope this finds you well and in good spirits, and I remain, your Pard
and faithful reader
Tim Kindred
Thanks, Tim. Your lyric is on JonahWorld!
Jonah
Oh wise and just Jonah,
O sage and martial Corporal,
I know that you know that there are two sides to every story so here is my
side to a recent letter sent to you by Pvt. James Butler. [It appears three of four letters back. - Jonah] This is NOT a flame
just a clarification.
...as if one were needed, but go ahead.
I am a member of the 'hard-core unit' mention in Mr. Butler's letter. We
consider ourselves very authentic but not hard-core.
Definitions, definitions. What's the real difference between the terms? Well, in my limited view, you're hardcore if,
1) You mentally ponder the authenticity advantages of getting loose bowels, tick infestation or lice,
2) You walk around without shoes,
3) You spend an inordinate amount of time away from family and friends doing research about uniform details the general public will never care about,
4) You hold mainstream reenactors in any sort of contempt for their lack of diligence and fail to enjoy their company as a result,
5) You turn your nose up at a camp chair, an a-frame tent, blankets or straw.
Just a working definition, mind you, and entirely my own. I'm sure there can be more. Let's say any two of these qualify one as being hardcore. One of them is cause for suspicion and possibly justification for the use of mood-altering substances.
We don't pee on our buttons but we do require our members to correctly portray
the unit we are representing.
Reflect that peeing on buttons was never the activity espoused by Rob Hodge in his now (in)famous Wall Street Journal article. Soaking them in urine was. (There's that delicate matter of aim that distinguishes the two actions.)
This includes correct clothing and equipment.
Okay - understanding for a moment that one can haggle endlessly about what "correct" means. Personally, I drew a line about that one long ago. Reenacting is too faddish. The $125 forage cap you bought with perfect confidence five years ago can be denounced as farby in the next unit newsletter. Enough is enough - I maintain all that's really required is a reasonable facsimile.
We don't want women in the camps as many other units don't.
(My wife camps with Civilian dependents and not with me and that's OK with
us.)
I don't like 'em in the camps, either. In fact, I'd just as soon they not show up at events at all, thank you. (Jonah's use for reenacting is something like boy's night out, you understand.)
By the way, I'm happily married, in case there might be any misunderstanding about my sexual preference.
In his letter he states "We have an ongoing rivalry...."
This may be in the past but nothing could be farther from the truth today.
There was a problem last year but that has been cleared up.
Actually, a rivalry isn't necessarily a bad thing. (And neither is reenactment politics, by the way, but let's not quibble about that one at this time...) If it's causing both units to "better" themselves, I would think you would think this is good for reenacting.
But you think your problem has been permanently cleared up, huh? Ha! Jonah knows better. Just give it time and you'll be at each other's throats again. Tribalism is a reenactment thing you'll just have to accept. You see, we emulate military units, which means, deep down inside, we want to believe that our unit is number one. Everyone else is number two, or three, or zero. Sure, there are Utopian appeals to a great brotherhood of living history, but on the local level guys are usually zealous of their groups and can easily be incited against guys in other units on the flimsiest of causes.
In fact we all agree that the 125thOVI is a fine Federal unit, with a great
bunch of guys that is family oriented. They have an excellent band. (I have
personally sent recruits to them and I am friends with the Lieutenant.)
Okay, okay, so perhaps the differences are overstated a bit.
Yes, there are differences, we aren't family oriented and we don't attend the
smaller events in Georgia. Does this mean that our two units can't still co-
exist in the state and both tell the story of the Federal soldier during the
Atlanta Campaign?
And, more to the point, is there anything either one of you can actually do about the other if the answer to your question is "no?" No, there isn't. You both have an equal right to exist. So you'll just have to get along and behave yourselves. (It sounds like perhaps you have - for the time being.)
I don't know there is any problem between our units now. Mr. Butler was rehashing
past events.
Aren't we all? I mean, isn't that what reenacting is all about? If he's guilty of rehashing past events, I submit all of reenacting stands guilty on that charge.
Why just recently we fielded 16 men and 2 musicians at Olustee
and have gained several new members.
Cpl. Phillip Whiteman
Thank you for this clarification, and I hope you have gleaned some entertainment value in what I have written. Thank you especially for doing Federal in the South - I understand there's a crying need, and, let's face it, it takes two to tango (or tangle).
Jonah T. Begone
Jonah, I can't tell you how impressed I am and how appreciative I was of
your Huck Finn article.
Thank you - it's one of my favorites.
Please let me explain. I am a transplanted Southerner living on politically correct yuppified Bai
UCSB, Dept. of History
mlshanks@ix.netcom.com
"Clio Eternum, Vita Brevis, Ludisimus"
Pvt Ryan Burns
46th Mississippi
States Rights Brigade
Army of Mississippi
I'm a 14 year old civil war buff (yankee of course) in MISSISSIPPI! Rebs to the left of me, Rebs to the right of me, Rebs everywhere. I
even got a reb reenactor in two of my high school classes. I hope to be a reenactor someday if the gun grabers dont win and take
every gun away. But am looking for a federal unit in the state and can't find one. Help!
Will MacDonald (aka Surrounded by Rebs with nowhere to go :) )
You have got a wonderful site going, I really enjoyed it. I think the reason I enjoy it the most is beause I am a Jonah. I'm in the 46th Mississippi Infantry and everyone in the entire States Rights Brigade in Mississippi knows me as either Jonah or Pvt Ryan..my name is ryan, so
they call me Pvt Ryan. But at every reenactment, no matter how calm I am, I always end up destroying someone's tent or knocking someone's food into the fire, I guess I am just a regular Jonah!
46th Mississippi Inf
Army of Tennessee
Kevin O'Malley
Scott & Robyn Futcher
Orland, Maine
33d Wisconsin Reenactors
John "Epistles From The Left Coast" Lamb
(Who has no wish to run around with a gun, and would probably look stupid in a corset)
A 16th Century New World Garrison
I enjoyed the bit about the origin of rap..
ciao!
Lizzzzzz
12th Virginia Co. B
Andalusia, Alabama
Pvt.T.C. 15th Alabama co. G
David Post
Jim A. Asbury
Pennsylvania Bucktails
Cpl, 2nd RIV, Co F
A. 100: 1 to read the directions and 99 to echo the commands!
1st Maine Veteran Volunteers
21st OVI Co. A
Alpharetta, GA
