By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Participants representing various roles
and regiments, at the Army Museum.
A devoted band of history buffs
By Burl Burlingame
brings the Civil War to life
Star-BulletinMOST stories about the Civil War are so entrenched in the public consciousness that they sound apocryphal, and here's another: As the newly launched Confederacy prepared to fire upon Abner Doubleday's troops holed up in Fort Sumter, the Southern artillery men found it difficult to rain death on their former comrades. So a Southern newspaperman lit the fuse instead. Deadlines are deadlines, after all. A continent and half an ocean away, Hawaii seems very far from the War Between the States. Add to that 136 years, and you can imagine the problem a group of Civil War enthusiasts had yesterday in Waikiki in sharing their enthusiasm.
"The Civil War? Is that the one in which we fought the Japanese?" asked one visitor.
"The Silver War? Was there a war about silver?" wondered another.
By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Authenticity is everything. Above, Willie Casey
and his battered hob-nail boots.
Interest in "reenacting" the war has grown steadily since the 100th anniversary in 1961, and today there are "regiments" of enthusiasts and historians in almost every state. Except Hawaii. Yesterday's small "encampment" was organized by Bruce Barham, a cameraman at Channel 2 and amateur Civil War historian who has participated in mainland reenactments. More than a half-dozen Civil War buffs appeared to help out, including a Honolulu newspaperman who remembers distinctly when the last Civil War veteran passed away in 1959.The event was a testing of the waters to gauge public interest, and a couple hundred curious citizens passed through the campsite in front of the U.S. Army Museum of Hawaii at Fort DeRussy, enough that Barham considered the event a success. It may become a regular event.
Those who do "living history" generally fall into three groups: Those who wish to interpret history in an atmospheric fashion for public-education purposes; historians who learn the crafts of the past to educate themselves; and those who forge a spiritual link to the past and to their ancestors by recreating their world. Civil War reenactors fall into all three groups.
William Sage IV feels that link keenly. If it weren't for the Battle of Gettysburg, said Sage, a voice-over specialist, he wouldn't be here. A great-great-grandfather impressed his future father-in-law during the battle. Sage still has his Civil War ancestor's sword, and has recreated Capt. William Sage the First's uniform.
By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
The slouch hat worn marks the wearer as an artillery man.
"These events break the ice for the public -- it makes it all right for them to wonder about the past, to make it real for them, to open their eyes to the real sacrifices that occurred," said Sage. "Take those idiot kids who claim there was no Holocaust; if you don't know history, you might believe them. And, like the man said, those who don't know history are condemned to repeat it."What was Hawaii's connection to the Civil War? Confederate raiders raged across the Pacific during the war, sinking enough whaling ships that Hawaii's economy felt the pinch. Many Hawaiians are thought to have served in the California 100th, and after the war, enough veterans moved here to form a local chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic and have their own section of Nuuanu Cemetery.
Visitors were fascinated by the small details of camp life, like the fact that a Civil War tent half was called a "shebang" and getting an entire tent together gave rise to the phrase "the whole shebang."
" It's so different," said Jacqueline Bond, 14. "I always thought that the Civil War was only about slavery, but it's really more complicated than that, isn't it?"
One visitor was disappointed that the troops didn't bang away with muskets. "I think the military police would frown on that," said Barham.
By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
This powder flask was used by a soldier to reload.
A member of a Rhode Island reenactment group, Barbara Williamson is simply fascinated by the process of "living" history. "What I like about the reenactors is their passion, their desire to preserve history and to share it."John Hutton, a history teacher at Waianae Intermediate, knows first-hand that history can be boring. "Now, if we do this, and a couple of people talk to us and think, 'Now THAT was interesting,' and they begin to think of that period of American history as real, then it's worthwhile.
"All we can do is give them a feel for it. I find that people are hungry for ANY information about the Civil War. We are a warrior nation and we always have been."
Representing a member of the famous 54th Massachusetts, Willie Casey, a math teacher at Waianae Intermediate and a captain in the National Guard, grew up in South Carolina and had unpleasant memories of Southern crackers using the Confederacy as a white rallying point. "And if you asked them to name five states that fought for the north and five that fought for the south, they wouldn't be able to do it," he said.
By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Bruce Barham, encampment organizer, lights a corncob pipe.
He is outfitted as a soldier with a North Carolina regiment.
"The Civil War is far more complicated and complex and than that, and far richer. It was, for example, the first literate war. Every soldier could read and write, and did so beautifully."We're just trying here to enlighten the public, to help them understand their roots. All Americans have roots in the Civil War, even in Hawaii. It's about getting in touch with values. Civil War soldiers didn't so much fight to abolish or preserve slavery. They fought for their communities, and in the end they were fighting FOR each other. That's a valuable lesson."
Sage has participated in large mainland reenactments, including one of 14,000 at Gettysburg. But he vividly remembers his first sight of a Civil War soldier.
One day in the mid-'80s while driving on the East Coast, Sage stopped at Manassas National Battlefield and was the only visitor there.
"I wandered onto the battlefield and there was only the sound of crickets. Suddenly the crickets stopped. Then, at the edge of the field, I saw a sergeant in a Federal uniform double-timing across the grass. He turned quickly, and disappeared into the woods. It was eerie, but I thought it was part of the park's interpretation of the site.
"Later, though, when I mentioned it to the ranger at the park information center, he didn't know what I was talking about. So I wonder -- did I see a lone reenactor? Or the ghost of a long-ago soldier?"
Something to remember on Memorial Day.
