EDUCATIONAL VALUE!

Many schools now use reenactments as a form of historical appreciation.

As a learning tool, it is truly unique, with unlimited applications! By placing students in the situations of a said time period, they gain a greater insight into the life of a person.

The students are able to ask questions of the person being portrayed and are answered as if they are actually in that time period! The "character" adds a dimension rarely seen in the classroom and assists to make the history more real and believable.

Think of it, to ask a Civil War soldier how the war is going, or ask a maiden how she must curry favor in court, or even ask a Scotsman how he was saved by a thistle!

Even the opposite will then happen sometimes. Again, reflect on a person from the Elizabethan time attempting to "analyze" a camera or walkman a student may have on them. The student has to try to come up with a very reasonable explanation for the object (Elizabethan erea individuals had great disdain for "magical" items!)

yet keep it simple enough for the "character" to understand. Try it sometime, it is not as simple as you may think!

CS - Confederate States of America, Civil War Reenacting

"Damn Yankee!" -- You know, every time I visit my Mother-in-law I hear that.

Virginia, and her husband Dale Deihl, make up the Northern Virginia Field Hospital. When it comes to civil war reenacting, they sure have been to quite a few, and for over 12 years.

O.K. Cannonball, I know you've been at it for quite some time too, so here is to ya'!

Anyhow, these people are the heart and soul of civil war reenacting. They live like those brave men and women of the civil war did for those days that a reenactment is in progress. No modern conveniences, an iron kettle, heavy wool clothes, and a tent.

However, as reenactors, it is worth the little "hardships" to get the mood/setting set for the reenactment of a civil war battle

When the crowds arrive the experience is, to say the least, exhilarating!

To see the wonderment in the eyes of the spectators, to hear the cannons reverb through the area, to listen to the stories of other reenactors is something that very few can say they have truly experienced. Yet to the reenactor this fuels them to delve into the part further.

As you stand out on the battlefield, readying your colt or rifle, the cannons thunder behind you. Their smoke fills the area. Shapes form from the rolling cloud of smoke. The sound of the charge! The roar of the crowd!! Your heart pounds and you lunge forward

to the battle....

You see it then. As the guns erupt in a fury of light and sound, you see it. The elephant!

You know it has come, for you. These are the things a reenactor remembers, and conveys, in their stories. Civil War reenacting is truly a unique experience, and one to be treasured!