Former Civil War reenactor here. The lack of Union reenactors boils down to cost.
The Union army had specific uniforms and equipment that have to be represented no ifs, ands, or buts. That isn’t a problem if you’re a single person or a married couple but it gets prohibitively expensive for families with kids.
The Confederacy had a much more “bring your own gun” kind of approach to the war (given the lack of industry in the South at the time) which allows for greater latitude when it comes to equipment as you can see in the picture. This makes things significantly cheaper for families with teenagers that quickly outgrow their uniforms. My family portrayed Confederates for this exact reason. We could use five or six different colors of wool for our uniforms instead of two and the period accurate guns we could use saved a fortune in the long run.
Later on after all of us kids stopped growing we ended up getting Union uniforms (or at least coats in the correct dark blue) and “galvanized”. Yankees typically win on Sundays (when the crowds tend to be bigger) but having them win outnumbered 4:1 is a little ridiculous. When there weren’t enough Yankees we would put on our blue coats and get put as far away from the crowd as possible to bolster their numbers.
This is great insight. I’d dig hearing or seeing more on this hobby if you have old pictures or videos. [email protected] has gotten pretty big as a general place to throw up some photos, and [email protected] is starved for new posts!
Former Civil War reenactor here. The lack of Union reenactors boils down to cost.
The Union army had specific uniforms and equipment that have to be represented no ifs, ands, or buts. That isn’t a problem if you’re a single person or a married couple but it gets prohibitively expensive for families with kids.
The Confederacy had a much more “bring your own gun” kind of approach to the war (given the lack of industry in the South at the time) which allows for greater latitude when it comes to equipment as you can see in the picture. This makes things significantly cheaper for families with teenagers that quickly outgrow their uniforms. My family portrayed Confederates for this exact reason. We could use five or six different colors of wool for our uniforms instead of two and the period accurate guns we could use saved a fortune in the long run.
Later on after all of us kids stopped growing we ended up getting Union uniforms (or at least coats in the correct dark blue) and “galvanized”. Yankees typically win on Sundays (when the crowds tend to be bigger) but having them win outnumbered 4:1 is a little ridiculous. When there weren’t enough Yankees we would put on our blue coats and get put as far away from the crowd as possible to bolster their numbers.
This is great insight. I’d dig hearing or seeing more on this hobby if you have old pictures or videos. [email protected] has gotten pretty big as a general place to throw up some photos, and [email protected] is starved for new posts!