My Reenactment Experience.

[Jishnu]

I had been interested in doing some reenactment since I was maybe around 11-12 years old. I never knew how to get involved and didn't know who to contact to talk to. Last spring, I did a school project that brought me down to an old French fort in Southern Illinois for a weekend.

It was coincidental that when my mother returned to work that next week, a co-worker of hers asked what she did over the weekend and my mother responded by saying we had gone down to Fort de Chartres for the weekend since they were having a French and Indian War event going on.

Her coworker was just making conversation and said that she knew a guy who was involved with Civil War reenacting. My mother, who knew I was interested in doing ANY kind of reenactment took his number down and brought it home to me.

That evening, I called the man who then gave me the number of another guy who runs a reenactment group. After talking to him, we decided to meet up one day to talk. We talked for a good amount of time and at the end of the conversation, I was already planning on going to the 150th Gettysburg event with them.

Now for a side story, 7 years ago when I was in high school, I got a stress fracture in my back by playing football. I was diagnosed wrong for 8 months and went through a lot of complicated of physical therapy and played an entire basketball season. My back was not getting any better and we decided to see a specialist that worked with professional athletes and universities in the area. Turns out the malpractice from my first doctor caused irreversible damage to my back that will never heal and now gives me constant pain in my spine. I live with this pain and have pretty much accepted that it will always be there.

Fast forward to the summer when we are heading to Gettysburg. On our way, the person I am riding with makes an illegal left turn which results in a collision between our vehicle and a vehicle going about 60 in a 45. The accident jerks my back and severe pain starts to set in. The next day, we are spending time in Richmond at the Museum of the Confederacy. My back hurts so much that I can hardly walk. At this moment, I realize that the trip for me has ended, for there is no way I can do anything at the reenactment.

That night I stay with a family member in Pennsylvania and the next morning I take a flight from Baltimore back home. Here we are over three months later and my back has not been much better. I do have an appointment scheduled with my doctor, but the soonest he could get me in was November. 

I'll probably never be able to do any reenacting because my back is so messed up now. If I decide to try to do anything more than walking for 15 minutes, my back hurts so much that I can hardly move. It isn't a muscular problem, since it is directly on the spine and as of the last time I saw my doctor, there is nothing they can do to fix it.

This is how I became the first casualty of Gettysburg...

Here is my main question though. Is there anything someone like me could do in reenacting?
...my only thought is being a wounded soldier in a triage tent or something... 
I am open to multiple eras of reenacting, but the American Civil War was my first and potentially last experience...

[Landrik]

You can always do something non-intensive, but combat reenactments probably won't be an option for you to participate in the field.

I say take up a trade like blacksmithing or tailoring and you'll have reenactors flock to you to repair or create items for them at the event. It's like setting up an ice cream stand at the beach. It's another way to be involved and still enjoy the hobby even if your physical condition is fucked.

Good luck with any sort of recovery.

[Riddlez]

SO my guess is that you have a hernia?

I know people who have it, my bet would be you can still participate, but you shouldn't fight for more than one hour, and then some rest

And lying about on fields will be out of the picture I guess.


IF you really want to, talk to the group you want to get into, if they are a half decent group, they'll help you.

[George385]

If you can do combat for about 5 minutes in basic medieval combat gear such as a gambeson, I would suggest dark ages reenacting. The combat is extremely quick, a one on one fight would go for 30 seconds.

Can you do 1 hour of aerobics? If so, you should be absolutely fine, even with chainmail.

[Jishnu]

SO my guess is that you have a hernia?

I know people who have it, my bet would be you can still participate, but you shouldn't fight for more than one hour, and then some rest

And lying about on fields will be out of the picture I guess.


IF you really want to, talk to the group you want to get into, if they are a half decent group, they'll help you.

Well, my doctor never mentioned a hernia, he said its a fractured spine that is no longer attached by bone. My understanding is that in one part of my back, my spine is not attached by bone but rather by something like scar tissue. The good news is that there isn't any damage to my spinal chord/central nervous system... but I can see how that is similar to a hernia in many ways.

I like some of the guys in the group I was traveling to Gettysburg with, but I'm not sure if I fit in with that group enough.... I guess I really didn't get to know all of them that well though.

If you can do combat for about 5 minutes in basic medieval combat gear such as a gambeson, I would suggest dark ages reenacting. The combat is extremely quick, a one on one fight would go for 30 seconds.

Can you do 1 hour of aerobics? If so, you should be absolutely fine, even with chainmail.

I could probably deal with that, just that I don't know of any medieval reenacting around my area. I'll be done with college in a year and might check it out then.

You can always do something non-intensive, but combat reenactments probably won't be an option for you to participate in the field.

I say take up a trade like blacksmithing or tailoring and you'll have reenactors flock to you to repair or create items for them at the event. It's like setting up an ice cream stand at the beach. It's another way to be involved and still enjoy the hobby even if your physical condition is fucked.

Good luck with any sort of recovery.

Yeah, the combat reenactment is probably what I would actually really want to be involved with.

As for a trade, I don't think I have enough time to invest in learning any of that, but it does sound pretty neat.

Thanks, I'm hoping to get some better news from this doctor, maybe technology has advanced in the past few years.

[George385]

where abouts do you live?

[Jishnu]

United States - St. Louis area

[DeoVindice61]

Civil war reenacting is nice but pretty much centered around combat. You always can get in uniform and do stuff with company in camp but stay out of battles. Some folks in my company do that. You always could do Christian commission or go as medic. You get to stay out of line but follow the company in battles.

Another thing, you could do ww2 reenacting, like radioman, combat medic, military police. There's many passive position in reenacting you could find. Just ask the unit to what they have to offer

[Captain America]

Maybe naval forces in most periods or airforce WW2/WW1, they do the full spiel and sometimes have aircraft or weaponry on display, but don't tend to do much combat from what I've seen

[GodsonGuys]

Maybe naval forces in most periods or airforce WW2/WW1, they do the full spiel and sometimes have aircraft or weaponry on display, but don't tend to do much combat from what I've seen

Or the AA gunner.... just sit on a stool and fire at dem planes!

[Riddlez]

Maybe naval forces in most periods or airforce WW2/WW1, they do the full spiel and sometimes have aircraft or weaponry on display, but don't tend to do much combat from what I've seen

Or the AA gunner.... just sit on a stool and fire at dem planes!

You make it sound as if it's easy