"Gettysburg with 23,000 re-enactors [photos/impressions]" Topic

A reenactment with 23,000 participants is quite something to behold. And that was the case when I took part in my first-ever event way back in 1998 – the 135th Gettysburg.

I've dug out my old photos and an article I wrote of my impressions, and posted them onto my 'Dressing the Lines' blog here:

link

Here are a few tasters of the images on the blog (there are plenty more pics in the article):

Was this part of the film? Truly impressive.

Nope, this was a reenactment. The movie had been filmed a year or two earlier, as I recall.

Very nice photos. I think I was at that one though the date would be the last year of my re-enacting career. I was a "red leg" in Carpenter's battery.

Thanks for posting!

John

Yup, I was there for that one. I commanded a small brigade of about 500 men. It was an amazing experience. Sadly we're not likely to see anything like it again.

What's planned for 2014? Surely there must be a huge event being staged for the 150th?

I was there for the 125th when they had thousands. Was definately a sight to see.

That second picture is truly amazing.

Great blog post. Thanks.

Was also there for the 125th. Pickett's charge was amazing to watch from the Union lines. Looked a lot like the second photo, except the frontage was larger.

And once all the rifles got to firing, it sounded almost like a constant roar.

Amazing..is there any film footage of the event on the web anywhere??
Cheers
paul

Here's some video of the 125th anniversary.
Pickett's charge starts around the 5-minute mark: YouTube link

I was at the 125th Gettysburg but we only had 5-6,000 there for that. At the 135th event we did Pickett's Charge at full scale: about 12,000 Confederates attacking 6-7,000 Federals. About 120 full-scale artillery pieces, too.

The upcoming 150th event will not be that big. Interest has fallen off sharply in the last few years and those of us who have been around since the 125th are getting a little long in the tooth. The poor economy is keeping a lot of folks away, too. Still, I imagine we'll have 10-15,000 at the 150th Gettysburg which is still a heck of a lot!

Thanks Carmen…that must have been a great day out..very impressive! Some of the guys acting like they´ve been shot are really convincing.
I really hope the 150th aniversary is as big…
Cheers
paul

Yep. I was there too! What an event; one never to be forgotten. It was my last reenactment also as I moved back to the West Coast. Thank you for posting these pics.

Btw, I was in a Yankee regiment that was near that guy when he got shot in the throat. ( we were literally ten feet from him as the medics worked on him, we were in a ditch above which a confederate battery had just unlimbered )

There were some tense times until the confederate reenacters discovered that it wasn't by one of us, but rather by one of their own. I had hitched a ride with a friend who was in a southern unit and when he introduced me to them after the event, before we decamped, I got an earful from his mates.

I am teaching a three week unit on the Civil War in March to three classes of 8th graders. I will be using photos from your site to show my students what things may have looked like back then.

I was there too. Awesome event. The 135th Antietam the year before was just as good. I believe that was the High Tide of ACW reenacting. We were Union so we were on the hill for Pickett's Charge and I was standing pretty close to where the photographer was in the second photo. The photo above only shows a fraction of the troops.
There was a one hour artillery barrage. Some of the newer guys started commenting that there were too many federals on the hill and the it was ludicrous to think the Confederates could carry a position like that.
Then regiment after regiment began marching out of the woods. I heard there were 15000 Confederates, but I'm sure it was hard to count because a lot of Union reenactors switched sides for Pickett's Charge. I was a file closer and as we lined up I asked the boys, "You still think we have too many men up here?"

CAtenWOlde,

Maybe you want to check out your dates. If you wait until 2014 for the sesquicentennial of Gettysburg you are going to be a bit late!

I hope to make it back for the 150th next year (2013) if I can arrange it – and there are events worthy of crossing the continent.

I will be there in 2013, fantastic vid evil thanks for posting that. I`ll be in a gray uniform.My re-enactment group took part in the British military Tourdiment last year Very proud of that.

(head slap)

I was there for the 125th and 135th as well. Both amazing events. The 125th series was what really started the push for greater authenticity and enforcement of standards at events. It also saw the rise of the larger umbrella units that finally allowed events to start fielding units that were almost 1:1 scale for events.

The National Regiment got it's start at the 118th Gettysburg event, and the Confederates started a similar group we initially called "The South Pasture Confederates".

Ron Tunnison, Brian Pohanka, and a few others were the force behind getting the US National regiment started at the 118th, and on the other side, it was Lynn Bull, George Heffner, Chuck James, and Chuck Hillsman.

Now it's more than 25 years later, and some of those folks aren't with us anymore, yet the organizations live on. More and more folks are training properly, learning to maneuver by bugle, deploy and control skirmishers by bugle, and live out of their knapsacks. It's good to see that still going on.

I'm going to a couple events this year, and maybe the 150th of Gettysburg. It all depends upon whether it (GBurg) will shake out as a well-run thing, or devolve into a carnival of reenacting. We'll see soon enough.

V/R

That is all kinds of awsome.

Best weekend my bookstore in a tent (Wabash Inn Books) had in the almost seven years of its business run. Great weekend for reenactors.

TKindred, so far we have had some good ones for the 150th. Ft Sumter and Balls Bluff to name a few. Bull run got nailed by excessive heat.

McDowell battleofmcdowell.org and South Mountain link are looking to be the "authentic" eastern events this year.

Stunning stuff!!!!

Was there for the 145th…plan to be there next year for the 150th….

It amazed me how much "drill" the union troops did every day there, but when I came time for the fight, most of them just stood in place….

"It amazed me how much "drill" the union troops did every day there, but when I came time for the fight, most of them just stood in place…."

That's because we follow orders :)

The three days of the 135th were amazing. The fights on the first two days were so large that it was impossible to see everything and then on the third day everything and everyone came together at one time.
The Confederal column on the second day was over a mile and half long (infantry only) and consumed 1500 gals of water, on their march out to their starting points.

I was there for the 140th and 145th. You can be sure I will be there for the 150th.

Murphy: Wear a carnation in your lapel so I know who to have my company aim at!

I was there for the 135th, and glad I was! There'll never be another like it. There just isn't as much interest in young people in Civil War history as there was in the past. The momentum caused by the 125th reenactment, coupled with Ken Burns' Civil War series, plus popular Civil War Movies (Glory and Gettysburg) were things that don't come along often, and rarely at the same time.

I'll probably try to do a few 150th events, but not going to do it like the 135th when I made just about everything.

Oh, and here's a great site link that has pictures from the 135th still up on it. My favorite:

I was there as well… actually at the angle… it was soo cool to have the guns firing over your heads… and then the burning hot pieces of debris from the guns begain to rain down on us….

Interesting note… they actually marched the units that would be meeting at the angle out there the day before for a meet and greet… hand to hand combat was prescripted and we had to designate x number of men to be taken prisoner in order to reflect the actual casualties….

Yes, the APPROVED hand-to-hand combat was pre-scripted. Unfortunately, there was a lot of UN-approved hand to hand combat. The brigade I commanded was to the right of the Angle and we had been assured that no Confederates would try to cross the stone wall where we were.

Right.

Wave after wave of them tried to force their way across the stone wall in my front. I threw in my reserve regiment and another Federal brigade came up behind us. We were 8 ranks deep at the wall and the Rebs still kept coming. At one point I saw one of my sergeants, a huge bear of a man, lift a Rebel up over his head and hurl him back into the ranks of his comrades. Another of my sergeants got a cut clear down the side of his face. It was pretty intense! But we held and eventually the Rebs fell back.

Quite a day! One to remember.