A reenactment of the stacking was done a couple of times a day after the ninth.  I was thinking that the Confederate reenactors must have been getting pretty tired of it.  I watched one of the stacking ceremonies on Saturday, but did not get any good pictures.

I also watched a real time reenactment of the artillery surrender, which was beyond tedious (The artillery and cavalry were surrendered first, because the ANV men were allowed to keep their horses and they wanted to get them moved out to other areas where there might be more fodder.  At least that is what somebody told me.)

That’s right I had decided to be with the Confederates, which I suppose requires some explanation.  Even if it doesn’t, I’m going to give it to you anyway.

It was a lucky choice because when I got into line, there was my friend Georg (that’s how you spell it).

Georg, a computer scientist, is one of the scary smart people whose interest in the Civil War began with playing complex strategy/tactical games.  He was born in 1971 and in the small town in Germany where he grew up there was not much information on the US Civil War.  He told me his mother, who fled Communism in Poland was very much pro-American in those final years of the Cold War.Georg had some very interesting perspectives.  The midday event at Antietam included ceremonies of a patriotic nature with a strong military presence.  The overall theme of Antietam was mourning, as it was the deadliest day in American history.  At any rate, there were fellows from the Old Guard (The Third Infantry Regiment who inter alia do the burial ceremonies at Arlington) and a speech from a very modern major general (Appomattox had a similar event on the 9th).  Georg said that Germans did not go in for that type of display very much and he had a hard time understanding it and knowing how to behave.

One of the perennial themes of the sesquicentennial was a celebration of American nationalism.  D.W. Griffith’s was at least right in that 1865 really was the Birth of A Nation

A couple of historians who spoke at different events pointed out that if the United States was not, you know, united, the history of Europe in the twentieth century would have been quite different as those West Point guys after an epic intramural war in which the Blue team won, but the Gray team put up a heck of a fight went on to a pretty strong century or so of successful war waging including the defeat of the Third Reich.Growing up in a country where there is still a good bit of unexploded ordnance from the Army Air Corps floating around makes Georg less sanguine about what a good thing American nationalism is.  That’s why he was marching with the Confederates rather than standing along the road.  He just could not relate to starting a war to keep states in a country.

We formed up in the ranks of four.  The reenactors with us looked really good, although perhaps not quite ragged enough for real authenticity.

The march was pretty short and I thought all those people on the side of the road saluting was a really nice touch.  We halted, did a left face and stepped back two paces.  We civilians just stood at attention while the reenactors followed the generals orders to fix, bayonets, stack arms, remove accouterments  and unsling cartridge boxes.  The general then told the guys they had been defeated by superior force and should be proud of the jobs they had done as soldiers. Thus began the next chapter in American history.  Professor David Blight of Yale had spoken earlier that day and told us that the guys from that era might be puzzled by the personal technology that we all carry around, but that the issues of federalism and race that are in our news all the time would have an eerie familiarity for them with some perhaps wondering why we had not yet sorted them out.

So what to do with that damn hat?  I had one of those impulses of generosity of a sort and gave to Georg to take back to Germany.  His insisted that I sign it and said he will cherish it. If only it were so easy to shed white privilege.

In 2013 Georg had not gone to Gettysburg.  He had been at Vicksburg which had a much lighter turnout and had been more or less adopted by Lincoln’s Generals.  These guys are not reenactors, but rather historical interpreters. They splintered off from The Confederation of Union Generals.    So Georg and I headed back to the general’s camp where he has a standing invitation to sit in General Grant’s tent

Peter J Reilly CPA hopes to be the first tax blogger to give up his day job.

More pictures here and here.