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Elite: The bonds of war
Posted April 2, 2011 at 18:06 in clips
Elite Magazine: The bonds of war
Story by April Dudash
This is where the Civil War stories are kept. These are the woods where ancestors come alive again in stories told around the campfire, and family history is as real as the pop of bacon grease and the scrape of a scuffed coffee pot against a tin cup.
Starting this month, America will commemorate the 150th anniversary of its bloodiest war, in which at least 620,000 Americans lost their lives, more than all other U.S. wars combined. The thunder of artillery will sound again at Fort Sumter this month. Uniformed troops will replicate an amphibious assault on the Outer Banks. From Charleston Harbor to Gettysburg, the National Park Service is partnering with nearly 2,000 organizations in anniversary events. North Carolina alone has more than 200 events planned through 2015, exactly 150 years after troops marched through areas like Fayetteville, Monroe’s Crossroads, Bentonville and, finally, Bennett Place.
For some, the story doesn’t end there, especially for present-day soldiers who see a direct connection to the wars they fight today and the one their forefathers fought before them. They shed their ACUs for another uniform, the ensembles of the Union and Confederacy. To them, re-enacting is a second job that requires the same discipline and constant training as their active military careers.
Even after 150 years, the war still fascinates and resonates.
On a chilly spring Saturday, a few Fort Bragg men stood in formation amid a sea of Civil War soldiers, thumping rifle butts to the ground as they stood at attention.
The sunrise pulled men out of their cloth tents to prepare for an upcoming re-enactment. The sesquicentennial of the Civil War is a re-enactor’s big show, the Super Bowl of their annual drills. Wool-clad men sprawled in wooden chairs as they let sausage and eggs settle in their stomachs. Others lay on quilts, heads propped on folded arms. The campfire is a chance to talk shop — how to best clean the barrel of a rifle that’s more than 100 years old or discuss new finds: letters written from the 19th-century battlefield and the best places to put your hands on the most authentic uniforms.
Retired Army Lt. Col. Fred Burt allows fellow re-enactors to use a piece of property in Fuquay-Varina that has been in his family since 1750. After retiring from the Army, he now devotes himself to another military group, the 26th North Carolina Regiment. It is one of the most active re-enactment groups in the country and the largest in North Carolina. The 26th fought at Gettysburg and weakened Union troops but at a great cost.
Burt serves as a company commander within the regiment as a tribute to the seven generations of Burt men who have served in the military. When Burt worked at the 18th Airborne Corps headquarters on Fort Bragg, he sometimes caught himself giving Civil War commands. He once saluted a soldier in the British palm-out style that was routine during the 19th century.
But some things never change about the military, Burt says, whether it’s the 21st century or the 19th.
“It’s still being a soldier. The sound of a bullet going by your head doesn’t change, whether it’s a musket ball or a 7.62 round.”
Learning about the Civil War reminds present-day soldiers of just how far the military has come. Even so, soldiers today still know what it’s like to be sweaty and thirsty and have a mission to complete. They understand frozen canteens and sideways rain.
As they pay tribute to yesterday’s soldiers, re-enactors often find themselves doing the same thing for today’s warriors. At one point during the recent training weekend, re-enactors hailed a returning member, a 20-year-old Marine who just came home from Afghanistan. Waving their hats in the air, cheers resounded across the field: “Hip, hip, hooray!”
Army Lt. Col. David Henkel has seen many re-enactors come and go because of deployments and permanent changes of station. He even joined his re-enactment unit while stationed overseas. He says trying to replicate an authentic Civil War encampment gives him a newfound appreciation for soldiers of that time period.
“They were tough. When you think about all the stuff that we got, we are the best equipped Army in the world today,” Henkel said. “Those guys went out and made do with what they had.”
Henkel is a registered nurse at Womack Army Medical Center where he works as the chief night nurse supervisor. Sitting by the fire, frying up some salt pork in a skillet or savoring a hot vegetable stew is “campfire therapy,” a time when he is removed from the hustle and bustle of working life and 21st-century stress.
Henkel has been a member of the Cape Fear Living History Society since 1983 and currently serves in the 18th North Carolina Confederate unit and 9th New Jersey Federal unit. It is common for re-enactors to play both sides; they routinely switch from one uniform kit to another. Henkel even makes some of his own uniforms and haversacks.
Re-enactments sometimes become a family affair. Henkel’s wife and two teenage sons participate in living history events and battles. It’s also an opportunity for fathers and sons to “serve” together. Burt re-enacts with his son, who recently left the National Guard as a first lieutenant after two tours in Iraq.
“There were a few times that my son ended up beside me on the line,” he said. “It all comes back to a father’s pride.”
Air Force Lt. Col. Chris Goff also takes his two sons to re-enactments. Based on first-hand accounts and research, they try to catch a glimpse of what it took for countrymen to fight each other, to prepare themselves for the possibility of killing their neighbor.
“Hardship is what they went through,” he said. “They had very little contact with home, very little to eat. When they got to where they wanted to go, the person they’re shooting at could be their neighbor.
“We try to get a little piece of that, but it doesn’t come close.”
Goff became interested in Civil War history in the early 1990s when he was stationed at Columbus Air Force Base near Shiloh National Military Park, the site of the largest engagement in the war’s Mississippi Valley campaign. He saw an advertisement for a living history event at the park.
“Right then and there I bought my musket and my first uniform, and that’s before I even joined a unit,” he said.
Now, he serves in the 26th N.C. in addition to his day job as a C-130 instructor pilot at Pope Field on Fort Bragg.
The story of life in the military, then and now, stays the same in many ways.
Long after Civil War anniversary events have come and gone, Goff, Henkel, Burt and many others will still be swapping those tales over the campfire.
Henkel says it’s the things casual observers can’t see — the camaraderie and bonds re-enactors share — that keep them coming back.
“We’ve pretty much been at it for more years than the war lasted.”