Battle action at Cedar Creek 130th
Sponsors, planners, and staff rarely talk with a significant cross-section of spectators. So, they assume most spectators live within 10 or 20 miles. Many do. Many don't.

But organizers underestimate the growing number of 'hard-core' spectators--singles, couples, families, retirees--who are willing to make a long weekend drive and stay overnite to experience an interesting, good-sized battle --if only they could get some key details about the event far enough in advance.

And there's also a smaller but also growing number of spectators who will even fly to more distant events--if they can get the kind of information they need far enough in advance to get low-cost plane reservations, rent a car and book a room within reasonable driving distance.
SOME OF OUR COMMENTS ON PAST EVENTS
CEDAR CREEK 130th (partially pictured above) -- October 1994

The Cedar Creek event at Middletown, VA, has run for a number of years now, always on the same ground, and following pretty much the same outlines of movement, for good historical reasons.

Although re-enactors have had issues with the organizers from time to time, from a spectator's perspective this is normally a very well managed event. The one exception has been the fact that parking is usually directly against the rear of the spectator area,. The result has sometimes been that the many cars needing to be parked have actually compressed the depth of the spectator area.

Although the ground dips and rises, there's hardly a bad seat in the house. The attack and counter-attack could seem very linear, as such actions sometimes are. But the size of the armies fit the field almost perfectly, allowing both sides, as the photo above shows, room to maneuver in several dimensions at once, near and far, high and low, to your left, straight ahead, and to your right. This 'swirl' adds complexity and drama to the battle, which compensates for the basic linearity of the rout and the counter-attack.

At the 130th, with a large re-enactor turnout, from a spectator's perspective, the field was neither over-crowded, nor were the armies dwarfed and rendered unrealistic by too much open space, as sometimes happens.

We look forward to the 135th,in October 1999

FRANKLIN and NASHVILLE (Spring Hill, TN) -- October 1995

While at Cedar Creek we heard that the Spring Hill event was to happen the following weekend--a 12 hour drive from Pittsburgh. The drive was rewarded handsomely by an event whose organizers and staff were essentially invisible to spectators. On both days, the event seemed to be running itself. Initially, on day 1, there was no-one to tell early birds which way the battlefield was from the parking area. It was a long walk, over steep hill and dale.

That day the assault on what appeared to be the gigantic Federal defensive works by wave after wave of large, determined reb units was magnificent and ferocious, as seen from a position just to the side of the works. There was more hand-to-hand than I had ever seen, although I can imagine that not all re-enactors and organizers were happy about that. To spectators, the slaughter was breath-taking and heart-breaking. Especially when remembering how close to the end of the war those actions actually had been.

The day 2 successful assault by Federals on fortified enemy positions on a long hill directly across from the spectator line took place on so wide a front before us that we could hardly take it all in.

But what made day 2 extra special was that, before the battle, there was action on and off most of the day. For so large an event, we remember seeing, at a distance, so many first-person impressions and mini-actions: attacks on mounted couriers, an imprompu 'baseball game' in an orchard. As spectators, you never knew what was going to happen--or when, or where.

Some of that appeared to be due to shooting scenes by the company doing the video-tape. We have not been happy with how that company packages the events they cover. Too often they appear to be techies determined to use all their electronic toys. They overrely on video editing gimmicks such as posterization and slo-motion even when doing that contradicts the historical actions they were trying to depict. What's worse, events of great scope, like this one, are often reduced to a series of close-ups, which look as if they could have been shot at an event with only a couple 100 re-enactors.

Nevertheless, in that case, the taping of smaller sequences for the video gave spectators much more to experience directly, no matter how the video ultimately turned out.

Both days' actions left us with that awe-struck you-are-there feeling that spurs spectators to chase after events. In our minds, before the 135th Antietam and Gettysburg, the Spring Hill event, sponsored by the North-South Alliance, was serious competition for the classic Gettysburg 125th. And all that considering that management was virtually invisible, but operating.

ANTIETAM 135th -- September 1997

Super!
GETTYSBURGH 135th -- July 1998

Super!
BATTLE OF SOUTH MOUNTAIN -- September 1998

Although the re-enactor turnout was much smaller than anticipated (perhaps 500) the battle was lively. Spectators could experience it close up so that not only could every command be heard but troop training and discipline could be measured against those commands. Verdict: a bit ragged here and there but compensated for by large amounts of enthusiasm. Spoiled only at the end by a frontal charge against a firm Federal line by a suicidal Reb unit that was, of course, mowed down. This kind of mini-parody of Pickett's charge was for a time a crowd-pleaser. But unless done just right it appears to be the act of undisciplined idiots and undercuts the credibility of prior actions.

The event area contained was one of the most charming fields we've whiled away the hours in. Formerly a farm, now a park outside Boonsboro it has acreage you'd love to have for yourself. The battleground itself was a charming broad natural amphitheater lined with deep stands of shade trees and covered in high grass.

Gauging by the spectator turn-out on Saturday, the all-day flea-market being held at the same time up and down the streets of Boonsboro appears to have been too much competition.

All in all, we'd go back again. The field could indeed comfortably hold four times the troops engaged this last time. Another event in 1999.
Critique of July 1999 Gettysburg "The Last Full Measure"

Send event info, comments and criticisms to: mrobbins@poleshift.org
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