Fifth Avenue Forum

We happened to do a daytrip up in Gettysburg two weeks ago during their 155th reenactment weekend. Swarms of people in period dress up there and in the town. In the three hours we were out on the battlefield, all we managed was the new (2008) visitor's center to the Meade headquarters to the High Water mark, then along Cemetery Ridge via The Angle and the Copse of Trees to the Pennsylvania Monument, and then back to the parking lot. Afterward, we had dinner at the Appalachian Brewing Co. and ended up doing a ghost tour in the evening before returning home.

Found out after the fact that my second cousin and his father were up there with an artillery battery, and would have given us behind-the-scenes had we wanted. We live in Manassas, whose battlefield park is quite large. But Gettysburg and the stops there dwarf Manassas. In three hour blocks, it might take a month to traverse the whole thing. They had people dressed up as President Lincoln and General Grant engaged in historical discussion at the Pennsylvania monument - these people knew their roles well. Though why Grant was at Gettysburg I am not sure I understood, given that he was at Vicksburg, but nonetheless it was a compelling performance.

(I'd post some photos but I haven't uploaded any yet - way behind in uploading to flickr or the like)

Thx for sharing. I really want to get out there for a reenactment weekend. We are only about an hour and 15 minutes away, and I absolutely love that town.

I went back down to the Civil War fort that my wife and I used to live/work at, and are still good friends with most of the staff (Fort Macon in NC). It turns out that Civil War reenacting is getting harder and harder as the older generation dies off and the younger ones don't care as much. They used to do large scale battle reenactments there and now they have a hard time getting enough together for a skirmish.

I worked a cannon crew once in full uniform, was a cool experience but it's not a hobby I'm looking to get involved in beyond that.

I used to do CW Re-enacting and there are myriads of reasons it is dying out.

1) Millenials are lazy.

2) The baby boomers are dying off.

3) PC stuff (campus SJW's and confederate flags) is making it difficult to hold re-enactments in some places.

4) General dis-interest from the public.