Re-enacting may be defined as organized groups of folks who, on various occasions and over weekends throughout the year, get together to re-create the atmosphere and living conditions (as closely and safely as possible) of the men who fought in the campaigns of the War Between the States over one-hundred thirty years ago.  For each re-enactor, the motivation to participate varies.  You may have an interest in history and want to experience first-hand how life was lived in those years.  Your interest in history may be enlivened by the knowledge that you had an ancestor who fought in the War Between the States.  You may find that your enjoyment lies in camping out and eating meals cooked over a wood fire, and smelling the acrid smoke of gunpowder when the cannons roar.  Your interest may lie in portraying either a historical or fictional persona of someone who lived - or could have lived - during the War Between the States, known as a "first person impression".  Or you may simply re-enact because it's something new and novel, and it looks like a great deal of fun.  Whatever the motivation, re-enacting is an exciting and consuming hobby.

We do not suffer the painful separation from home, loved ones, and friends as those men did.  We are not plagued by disease as they were, and we need not go hungry or even endure inclement weather as they did.  We have the luxury of returning to the present century any time we choose to do so.  But re-enacting brings us closer to the way those men and women of the Victorian era lived and the way the men fought, and gives us a clearer understanding of the causes for which they contended. 

Re-enactors are a diverse lot: warehousemen, mechanics, nurses, welders, doctors, fencemen, engineers, salesmen, housewives, lawyers, draftsmen, factory workers, students, oil field workers, miners, deliverymen, and many other professions.  We all have one common bond, though: an interest in life and events during the War Between the States.

Re-enactments are public events that usually commemorate a battle or skirmish, although that is not always the case.   Frequently, re-enactments are used to financially aid a park, museum, or historical site, and they are often sponsored by historical societies or municipalities.  Most events begin Friday afternoon or evening when re-enactors start setting up their equipment, and continue through Saturday and into Sunday afternoon.  It may include living history demonstrations, drills of the troops, and scripted battles that often look - and feel - very real.  While all participants may do either a military or a civilian impression, some adopt a "first person" impression, adopting the persona of a person who did -- or could have -- lived during the event being re-enacted.

A weekend event may include tenting with your Company, drills on the cannon, skirmishes or mock battles, singing, a Saturday night dance or ball or cotillion, visiting the sutlers (merchants who cater to our hobby), cooking over wood fires, perhaps a brief Sunday morning "period" church service, and whatever else you may wish to do in your spare time. Often there will be one or more types of demonstrations.  Cavalrymen demonstrate their riding skills, sometimes shooting at targets while riding past them, or fighting with swords while on horseback.  Artillerymen drill for the benefit of smaller groups of folks, explain the various parts of the piece, and sometimes fire the cannon for the spectators.   Infantrymen execute their marching formations and drill, and sometimes let kids handle their rifles or try a bite of hardtack (a hard piece of leather-tough cracker made of flour, salt, and water).  Medical demonstrations explain the period state-of-the-art medical implements and medicines, and sometimes graphically portray field surgery with men "injured" during the skirmishes.

There may be a ladies’ tea or social at an event.  Sometimes the ladies give exhibitions of the clothing (including the many undergarments) worn by women of the Victorian era, discussing jewelry, personal hygiene, the fabled sign language of the fan, etiquette, mourning, and family matters.  You may see a woman working on her spinning wheel, at her loom weaving cloth, candles being dipped, cloth being dyed, food being cooked over a campfire, or any number of necessary daily tasks being accomplished.  At various events, there may be displays of the undertaker’s craft and supplies, a duel, mock court martials and even executions by firing squad or hanging.  Some events have demonstrations of children’s activities of the period, including playing ring toss, mumblety-peg, battledore and shuttlecock, marbles, hand shadow puppets, hoop, and many other amusements.   Mostly it is just a lot of fun for the entire family, and a window into our past.

Although re-enactments take place throughout the country all year long, most events in which 5th Company will participate as an organization will exclude mid-May through mid-September to avoid suffering in the extreme heat of our Southern climate.  Our participation in events as a group is generally limited to those within fairly reasonable driving distance.   Most events begin on Friday evening with the erection of tents accurately styled after the originals, and events commonly end early Sunday afternoon.  We dress the entire weekend in accurately-styled uniforms made of materials which are reasonably historically accurate, and modern anachronisms are hidden from the view of other re-enactors and spectators alike.  In this fashion we keep ourselves as much as possible in sight of 1861 - 1865.

The second type of event, a tactical, is normally closed to the public and revolves around the battle or skirmish concept, often based on a battle or skirmish which occurred during the War Between the States, and is scripted only in the very broadest sense of the term.  The fighting may last all weekend, and the outcome of the battle uncertain to the end.  Exceptions to the historical norm may be allowed so that we can play "War" more fully, such as letting enlisted men on the cannon use pistols and carry rifles.  Rules of engagement are usually strict, including the prohibition of non-scripted hand-to-hand combat and the taking of another company’s flag or flags.  The public is not often invited to these events because there is so very little that they could see from a single vantage point out of our way that it would only be frustrating for them and an annoyance to the re-enactors to have spectators present.

Strictly speaking, a living history encompasses both re-enactments and tacticals.  Within re-enacting circles, though, the term "living history" denotes a third specific event type. It will rarely have any sort of battle or skirmish, or even any gun firing other than perhaps as a salute.  The primary focus of a living history is to display to the public the manner in which folks of the period lived and worked, often with an emphasis on "first person" impressions.  As an artillery company, we occasionally have the opportunity to fire a cannon as part of a living history demonstration.

Although not included in this grouping of events, from time to time we have the opportunity to participate in a live fire in which we actually load solid shot into the cannon and shoot at targets.   Those occasions are normally competitions, too, in which artillery companies compete with other artillery companies (and infantrymen compete with other infantrymen).   Live firings sometimes take place as part of one of the three types of events mentioned already, and sometimes constitute an event of their own.

If there is only one common thread to these three different types of events, it would be this: that in all we do, we strive for reasonable accuracy in portraying life as it was during the War for Southern Independence.  We are as much living historians as we are anything.  Our hobby is fun, but there are times when there is an air of solemnity about it, too, when we find ourselves standing on sacred ground where men who first wore the uniforms of grey and blue suffered and died.  Spectators have a reasonable expectation of our comporting ourselves properly and giving them a glimpse of history that will make history seem so much more real, vital, and relevant to them.  Our portrayals seek to make each type of event a real form of living history.

Unlike our forebears, no one truly dies in our battles or skirmishes.  To enhance the feel of realism about what we do, some may be selected to "die" at appropriate times and others may choose to die.  This is desirable when clearly there would have been fatalities under the circumstances in which we find ourselves. So we "die."  But when the battle is over, the dead rise up and walk when the commanding officers cry "Resurrect!".