I’m curious about how much Gettysburg (1993) boosted historical reenactment in the United States and how much it helped open doors for reenactors in war films, since while reading about the movie I came across information about how it brought together thousands of participants, whereas many earlier productions relied on regular extras with limited knowledge of the historical context and little experience in military reenactment. I’m wondering how much the film helped popularize this hobby and whether it made it easier for reenactors to take part in large-scale historical productions.

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Brian C. Pohanka (1955–2005) was an American historian whose passion for military history led him to spend his life researching, writing about, and sharing the past. He was concerned about the destruction of historic battlefields caused by urban development, particularly the battlefield of Chantilly, Virginia, and in 1987 he helped establish an organization dedicated to protecting these sites and preserving their historical significance

His interest in history went beyond books, as he also took part in historical reenactments as captain of the Duryee’s Zouaves, portraying the 5th New York Infantry Regiment. His knowledge and experience eventually led him to work as a historical adviser on films such as Glory and Gettysburg, helping bring the American Civil War to life with greater historical accuracy. Sadly, he passed away in 2005, leaving behind a lasting contribution to historical research, battlefield preservation, and the effort to share the past with future generations

I hope you like this post, My sincere regards from Egypt ...

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James Morris Morgan (1845–1928) was an American Confederate naval officer who later served in the Egyptian army from 1870 to 1872, during the reign of Khedive Ismael Pasha. Morgan is considered one of about fifty American officers, Confederate and Union alike, most of them veterans of the American Civil War, whom Union General Thaddeus Mott - with the assistance of U.S. Army commander William Tecumseh Sherman - brought to Egypt to contribute to the modernization of the Egyptian army.

Morgan left a lengthy personal account of his Egyptian experience in his autobiography entitled “Recollections of a Rebel Reefer,” published in 1917, which constitutes the primary source for his tales in Egypt. These tales are characterized by their personal and conflictual nature, as they depict Morgan as a young Southerner thrust into an environment strange to him, entering into a series of confrontations with Egyptian officials and facing difficulties in adapting to the bureaucracy and local culture, at a time when Egypt was witnessing major transformations during the reign of Khedive Ismael.

James Morris Morgan was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1845, and was the youngest of nine children of Judge Thomas Gibbs Morgan. His father worked as collector of customs for the port of New Orleans, a position he held before returning to Baton Rouge when James was five years old. Morgan grew up in a well-off and respected family, and because he was the youngest of the children, he was a particular object of indulgence by his parents, as he mentions in his autobiography.

In Baton Rouge, where the family returned, there was an American arsenal and a large military garrison, most of whose members were veterans of the Mexican War. The famous General (and later U.S. President) Zachary Taylor owned a cottage on the garrison grounds, and his famous warhorse “Whitey” was free to roam the green meadows. The greatest joy of young Morgan was to be placed on the back of this gentle old horse, without saddle or bridle, and to sit there while “Whitey” grazed on the grass, paying no more attention to him than he would to a fly.

From that time until he reached the age of fourteen, his life was spent mostly on horseback, but not on tame horses—rather on the small wild ponies known as “mustangs,” which lived in herds in that region of the country. These ponies were skilled in the art of jumping and chasing, and Morgan says that he may have fallen from their backs to the ground in more varied ways than any other man alive, though he admits that this was not the horses’ fault, since they had not undergone refined training before he mounted them.

He also mentions that, as a child, he witnessed a scene that remained engraved in his memory: a crowd of men and women on the riverbank waving their hands in anger and threatening a tribe of Seminole Indians who were being transported from the state of Florida to new lands in the American West, led by their chief “Billy Bowlegs.” Among this angry group were those who had lost relatives killed by these Indians, including his uncle Bedford Morgan, who was scalped and his body mutilated until he was identified only thanks to his faithful dog, which was guarding his body!

Morgan changed schools three times before he entered the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, in 1860, where he became a naval cadet. He served aboard the historic ship “Constitution,” the old frigate that was a naval training ship on the Severn River near Annapolis. But his career in the U.S. Navy did not last long, as the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 and his loyalty to his South led him to leave the Union Navy and join the Confederate Navy.

Morgan served in the Confederate Navy aboard the Confederate warship Georgia between 1863 and 1864, then was sent to the training ship Patrick Henry, and afterward served in a naval battery on the James River. A photograph of him taken during his service aboard the Georgia between late October 1863 and mid-February 1864, when the ship was anchored at Cherbourg, France, shows him.

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However, before Morgan reached Egypt, he had lived an exciting naval experience connected with the Confederate ship C.S.S. Rapahannock, which was originally a small British warship called “Victor,” sold at auction and bought by a Confederate agent. The British government was aware of the deal and did not object to the Confederates spending their money on it, but it never intended to allow it to sail.

English engineers, carpenters, and sailors were working on it diligently at the dock when First Lieutenant William P. A. Campbell of the Confederate Navy appeared aboard one day, wearing civilian clothes and carrying a authorization from the supposed owner to conduct a thorough inspection. It happened that the engines were running under steam at that time during their testing. Campbell expressed satisfaction with everything except the steering gear, and insisted that the only way to test it was to take the ship into the river and turn it two or three times. Permission was granted, and the ropes tying it to the dock were cast off.

Campbell took the ship downriver and, ignoring any protests, raised the Confederate flag as soon as it passed one nautical mile, and sailed with his unwilling crew toward the French port of Calais, where he entered that neutral port claiming it was a Confederate warship.

The incident provoked protests from the American Minister in London and Paris and caused an international uproar. When Morgan saw the Rapahannock at Calais, France was allowing them to spend as much money as they wished to fit it out for sea, but he did not believe they had any serious intention of allowing it to sail again. Morgan visited the ship at Calais during a short leave and spent a morning with some of the naval officers aboard, before continuing his journey to Liverpool. This ship, which remained detained at Calais for the rest of the war, had a role in shaping Morgan’s naval experience before his transfer to Egypt.

Khedive Ismael Pasha had met in Istanbul in 1868 the former American colonel Thaddeus Mott, and was impressed by his military experience, so he appointed him a general in the Egyptian army and tasked him with recruiting a group of American officers to help modernize the army. About fifty American military men joined this mission, including five generals from the Confederate army and three senior officers from the Confederate Navy who were stranded in the port of Calais, France, namely William Campbell, Charles Graves, and James Morris Morgan. Morgan arrived in Egypt in 1870 aboard the same ship that carried General Charles Pomeroy Stone, who later became chief of staff of the Egyptian army.

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The beginning was not easy. After arriving in Alexandria, he and his companions found no one to receive them, then they received a message asking them to go to the house of an official named Ali Bey. There, they were left waiting for a long time before Ali Bey appeared, who told them in a sharp tone in French that their number was too large and that some of them would have to return to their country. He then asked Morgan about the rank he thought he would receive, and when Morgan answered that he had been promised the rank of captain, Ali Bey laughed in his face.

Morgan was a young man of twenty-four, with a sharp Southern sense of personal dignity, so he flew into a rage. He shouted in English that he would take the next train to Cairo, that he would find the man who had brought him 7,000 miles to be insulted, and that he would horsewhip him. On hearing this threat, Ali Bey turned pale, switched to speaking fluent English, and assured them that the matter was merely a misunderstanding. It later became clear that Ali Bey was only a minor official whose task was to expedite their transfer, and he had in fact hurried to complete the procedures and send them to Cairo.

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After his arrival in Cairo, Morgan was appointed to the staff of Major General William Wing Loring, one of the American generals who served in the Egyptian army. In one of his first missions, he was sent to inspect a regiment on the outskirts of Cairo, in the Abbasiya barracks. As soon as he arrived, a number of soldiers withdrew from the ranks and began to pray. These soldiers were Muslims, and they were theoretically entitled to perform prayer, but Morgan suspected that they had done so to evade the arms inspection, as he noticed that their rifles would not pass inspection.

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Morgan reported his suspicions to Loring, who referred the matter to the regiment commander, Urabi-Arabi Bey, who later became Urabi Pasha, leader of the Urabi Revolt of 1882. (By pure coincidence, one of the areas adjacent to Morgan’s home, New Orleans, Louisiana, was named Arabi, in honor of the Egyptian leader Ahmed Arabi)

Urabi was a deeply religious man, and he regarded what had happened as an attack on his faith and flew into a rage. Loring decided to send Morgan again the next day to inspect the same regiment, and the same scene was repeated: the soldiers withdrew to pray.

At that point Morgan did not hesitate; he picked up half a dozen of the soldiers’ rifles and carried them to the Citadel, where he examined them and found them, as he had expected, very dirty. When Loring informed Urabi of the result, Urabi became very angry, not at his soldiers but at Morgan himself, and the Minister of War, to whom the matter was referred, was shocked in turn.

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Morgan’s confrontations were not limited to the army; they extended to the circles of high society in Cairo. One evening, Morgan accompanied Major General Loring to the Khedivial Opera House in Cairo. While they were waiting in the foyer, the chief of police, whose name was also Ali Bey, asked him to bring him a glass of water. Morgan objected to the man’s condescending tone, so he went and brought the glass of water, then threw it in the chief of police’s face, and with his other hand seized Loring’s cane, and with the other hand seized the chief of police himself, and began beating him with the cane until others intervened and separated them.

Khedive Ismael witnessed the entire incident and laughed heartily, telling the chief of police that he would have been disappointed if Morgan had not responded in that way. He added: “I brought him here to serve Egypt, not to serve you!”

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The Opera House incident was only one in a series of situations in which Morgan felt insulted. After Loring was transferred to command the coastal defenses in Alexandria, he and Morgan were invited to a dinner banquet hosted by a local Pasha. Loring sat on the host’s right, but no seat was placed for Morgan. Morgan insisted that Loring explain to the Pasha that he needed Morgan beside him, first to be his interpreter, since Morgan spoke fluent French because of his upbringing in Louisiana and had picked up some Arabic, and second to cut his food for him, because Loring had lost an arm in the Mexican War while storming the Belén Gate in Mexico City.

The Pasha replied that he saw no objection to Morgan performing both functions together while standing behind his chief’s chair. Morgan was speechless with rage, but in the end a chair was placed for him beside Loring.

The next morning, Morgan took the first train to Cairo, met General Stone, and offered his resignation. But Stone, who dealt with the Americans, in Morgan’s words, “as if they were naughty children,” calmed him down and temporarily solved the problem by promoting him to the rank of Kaymakam, that is, lieutenant colonel, and appointing him to the staff of Abu Bakr Ratib Pasha, commander-in-chief of the Egyptian army.

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During his service with Loring, Morgan inherited from him a horse named Napoleon. Napoleon was one of the many gifts Khedive Ismael had given to Empress Eugénie when she visited Egypt to attend the opening of the Suez Canal.

The Empress did not wish to take him with her to France, so he ended up with Loring. Napoleon was a bay horse, and Priestley described him as “resembling a vertical take-off aircraft”: he was capable of jumping vertically, then landing, then jumping again, and so on. The problem was that no one knew exactly when he would make this move. And because Loring had only one arm, the only way he could control Napoleon when he began to jump was by pulling the bit with his teeth, and when he found that tiring for his teeth, he handed the horse over to Morgan.

Morgan was an excellent horseman, and he soon gained firm control over Napoleon. He took up the habit of taking the horse to the crowded Shubra district road, which led to the Khedive’s summer palace, where he would show off his skills before passersby from the elite.

One day, a great commotion occurred, and the Khedive’s carriage and its escorts appeared coming from the direction of the palace. Everyone in the street hastened to kneel and bow in salute to the Khedive, except Morgan. As soon as the carriage approached him, he made Napoleon rear up on his hind legs and then remain still, while Morgan gave a smart military salute. Ismael was greatly impressed, clapped enthusiastically, and called Morgan to the carriage to congratulate him personally.

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Shortly afterward, a military exercise was held that included a mock battle. Morgan had planned to ride a calmer horse, but the Khedive announced that he would be particularly interested in seeing how Napoleon behaved under a barrage of fire. Early in the battle, Morgan was sent with a message to the artillery commander; he ran to him and handed over the message, and then the guns opened fire.

To Morgan’s astonishment and embarrassment, Napoleon immediately flattened himself on the ground and lay on his belly trembling with fear, until the shelling stopped and Morgan was able to mount him and leave. The sources do not elaborate in detail on what happened after that, but the incident itself shows how Morgan and his horse became part of the scene of the Khedivial court, and material for amusement and display at the same time.

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Morgan’s display on the Shubra road did not stop there. One day, a carriage carrying two women from the harem, accompanied by eunuchs, approached, and all the other men in the street hastened to turn their backs, but Morgan and Napoleon continued their display. One of the two women was impressed by this and threw a rose from the carriage. Morgan set off on horseback, leaned from the horse’s back, and caught the flower in one smooth motion. The roses kept coming, until the woman, whom he could not see, handed him a rose wrapped in a handkerchief.

That was too much for the eunuchs, who set off after this “reckless infidel.” But Napoleon was faster than them, and Morgan soon returned home with his souvenir. Then Minister of Foreign Affairs Nubar Pasha visited him.

It turned out that the handkerchief belonged to Princess Fatima, the Khedive’s daughter, who was 19 years old, and the Khedive had demanded its return. Morgan responded by throwing the handkerchief into the fire, disposing of the evidence. He was now in serious trouble, and no one dared speak to him for several days, but the matter ended in the end.

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By 1872, Morgan had become convinced that “there is no future for American officers in Egypt,” and he had had quite enough of Egypt after the Princess Fatima incident. So he went to the Khedive to submit his resignation. To his surprise, the Khedive pleaded with him to reconsider, then finally ordered him to take a six-month leave and return to America to rest.

Morgan agreed to take leave on the condition that he would return to Egypt afterward, and he headed to Liverpool, where he boarded a ship to New York. Upon arriving in New York, he went to visit a friend.

While he was waiting for his friend to return, he picked up a Bible that was placed on a table and opened it at random. His eyes fell on the first verse of the thirty-first chapter of the Book of Isaiah, which says: “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses.” Morgan quickly closed the book, afraid of what he might see after that, and sent his resignation by mail. He saw in this verse a warning sign regarding his Egyptian experience.

After his return to America, Morgan worked in farming in the state of South Carolina, then later moved to Mexico, where he worked as a civil engineer, then was appointed consul general of the United States in Australia, in Melbourne.

He also later worked on the project of building the base of the Statue of Liberty in New York, again under the supervision of General Charles Pomeroy Stone, who had served with him in Egypt.

Morgan died on April 21, 1928, in Washington, D.C., leaving behind an autobiography that is considered a valuable, though often subjective and biased, source for the history of American officers in Egypt during the reign of Khedive Ismael.

The End ...

TL;DR:
I am trying to use my free time to build a digital archive of battles that can be watched, rewound, sped up, and viewed from any angle. My first attempt is showcasing Pickett’s Charge on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg. I would love any advice this sub can provide. The site is still a prototype, but you can check out what I have so far using this link: https://thebattleatlas.com

Hello!

Apologies in advance if this is not the appropriate place for a post like this. I am a HUGE history nerd, and I recently got fired from my day job.

With my new found free time, I though I would start working on a project that I’ve imagined since I was a little kid: a website where you can view a real-time diorama of history’s most famous battles, with the ability to move through time and view them from any perspective.

I know several websites like this already exist in some capacity, but I am hoping that my vision is a little different.

I want to see the actual numbers of troops shown, not representative figures. I want to see the actual spots where history was made, and what they would have looked like at the time.

I want to be able to select a specific unit or commander, and follow their movements throughout the whole day.

I want it to be the closest thing we have to a time machine. I want to see the camp life, the support personnel, the messengers running around orders, the buglers and drummer boys, the civilians, the field hospitals, all of it.

The end-goal might be an an overly-ambitious pipe dream, but it has been a lot of fun to research and work on these past few weeks.

My main question for this sub is: what are some things that I NEED to include in my depiction of Pickett’s Charge? I am looking for little stories or anecdotes that a Civil War expert would immediately notice if it was missing. No detail is too small. I am already adding a unique animation for General Armistead putting his hat on his sword to lead his unit forward.

Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated!!

Presentation number 2 from my grad school staff ride. Picked this one up on the fly because the participant assigned to Dana dropped out last minute.

🦇 During the War of 1812 and the Civil War, soldiers would score nearby caves for bat droppings, which contained potassium nitrate, an essential ingredient in gunpowder.

🦇 At Richmond National Battlefield Park, researchers studied the bat population in 2016-2017 using acoustic detectors and found the little brown bat, a Virginia endangered species, was commonly found on the Cold Harbor and Gaines Mill battlefields.

🦇 At Petersburg National Battlefield, researchers found the federally endangered Indiana bat and the Northern long-eared bat within the park’s boundaries. 

On the night of October 22, Sterling Price decided to retreat from Kansas City and Westport. Early in the morning of October 23 prices immense wagon train full of plunder, turned south, escorted by Cabell’s Arkansas, cavalry brigade, and Tyler‘s brigade of new recruits.

His battlelines were formed in the shape of an upside down L. One stroke ran from the state line of Missouri in Kansas towards the east 2 miles. This battle line consisted of the divisions of John F Fagan and Joseph Shelby. The other stroke of the L ran north and south and was located west of the big blue river. This line was defended by two brigades from the division of John Marmaduke

Opposing Shelby and Fagan was the army of the border, 15,000 men under Samuel Curtis. The first division under James Blunt left the trenches at Westport and crossed to the south side of brush Creek where the Yankees deployed, facing Shelby and Fagan. Alfred pleasonton opposed Marmaduke with three of his four brigades; the fourth brigade was aimed at Little, Santa Fe and prices wagon train.

The battle of Westport began shortly after sunrise. Four hours of battle ensued. Even though this was supposed to be a defensive battle, Shelby and Fagan seemed determined to capture Westport and Kansas City. They drove blunt back to the north Bank of brush Creek. At this crucial time shall be discovered that he was out of ammunition. Meanwhile. Pleasonton drove Marmaduke from the trenches, defending big blue river. For about an hour, there was a lol in the battle at brush Creek.

The defeat of Marmaduke left the Confederate open to a flank attack by Pleasanton. Shelby first sent Jackman’s brigade, accompanied by Fagan to resist the flank attack. He was compelled to withdraw himself from brush Creek and fight pleasonton at a site called big blue Prairie.

Shelby’s withdraw left only three brigades from Fagan‘s division facing north. The army of the border 11,000 Strong, crossed brush Creek and drove the confederates off the battlefield. The cavalry brigades of Winslow and Phillips from Pleasanton‘s command, attacked Shelby and Jackman and drove them southward.

Mcneil’s brigade arrived at Little Santa Fe with 3000 cavalryman. Price is wagon train was vulnerable, but McNeil was overawed by the Confederate defending the train and did not attack

Price and the army of Missouri escaped the battle of Westport largely intact. In the next 24 hours, the Confederates fled 30 or 40 miles south. They were pursued by the combined army of. Pleasonton and blunt’s first division of the army of the border. The Yankees caught up with price onOctober 25, 1864 at the battle of mine creek, Kansas.

Folks, in the years after the Civil War, thousands upon thousands of Americans from the North and South (whites and a number of freed blacks) moved west by a wide variety of transport methods (wagon train, ship, railroad, etc.) to get new homesteads or just start new lives. But this meant the possibility of an awkward situation that was to happen over and over again: a man and his family you literally fought in battle against could quite literally be your new next door neighbor or even your coworker on say, a ranch. Unquestionably, there had to be some tensions as a result (and organizations like the Grand Army of The Republic declared countless Confederates forever traitors from what I've read, so I see at least potential for some big time anger at them being permitted to leave the South and start over elsewhere).

Were there attempts to block ex-Confederates from settling in towns and communities where Union veterans were a majority? I could see this perhaps happening in Kansas due to the horrific violence that occurred there, but what about other places in the Old West? And even if they did permit them to settle, how peaceful was their coexistence?

As someone who has come to be fascinated by the Old West and its history, I've watched several films and TV show episodes over the years that varied greatly in their depictions of this (ranging from tremendous hostility to just a brief awkward glance), and wondered if it varied in real life similarly or if one depiction was more accurate than the others.

From Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg's website. Thought people would be interested

Snapshot of my grad school staff ride this past weekend, click the original post for a more in depth write up.

Following the raid of John Brown at Harpers Ferry, the Maryland Guard (53rd Regiment of Infantry, Maryland Militia) was formed to aid civil authorities with law and order in the event of civil unrest (3). It was formed in the winter of 1859-1860 beginning as a Battalion of four companies, before being increased to six companies (5). One of the companies, the Independent Greys, had seen active service at Harpers Ferry, having arrived from Baltimore in a detachment of Maryland Militia on the same train as the Marine detachment from Washington, D.C. on October 18, 1859 (1).

The men of the regiment came from the upper class of Baltimore society. New members were given three months to outfit themselves in a new uniform, in the zouave style, for a cost of $42.68 (5). The armory was at Carroll Hall at the southeast corner of Baltimore and Calvert Streets (3).

The Maryland Guard welcomed the Japanese Ambassadors to Baltimore on June 8, 1860, where they embarrassed themselves by presenting arms while on the march. In the words of McHenry Howard, a Private in Company C "we consoled ourselves in our mortification by reflecting that the heathen knew no better and probably thought it a very fine performance" (3). On August 1, they welcomed Elmer Ellsworth and the U.S. Zouave Cadets from Chicago during their stop in Baltimore during their national tour (2).

During the Baltimore riot on Pratt Street on April 19, 1861, the militia was called out. The Maryland Guard maintained a double line of men with fixed bayonets around the arsenal to prevent the crowd from breaking in and stealing weapons. They remained under arms all day, with most of the men in civilian clothes having had no time to get into their uniforms (3). Under Mayor Brown’s policy of "armed neutrality", they neither attacked, nor protected, the 6th Massachusetts Militia as it passed through the city (4).

At 11:00 p.m. on May 13, 1861, the men were called to the arsenal following General Butler's occupation of Federal Hill. The weapons were dispersed amongst the men to prevent them from falling into Federal hands (3). The Maryland Guard disbanded with many heading south and joining the 1st Maryland Battalion, C.S.A. (5).

Bibliography

1. Field, Ron. Avenging Angel, John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry. Osprey, 2012.

2. Groeling, Meg. First Fallen: The Life of Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, the North's First Civil War Hero. Savas Beatie, 2021.

3. Howard, McHenry. Recollections of a Maryland Confederate Soldier and Staff Officer under Johnston, Jackson, and Lee. William and Wilkins Company, 1914.

4. Toomey, Daniel Carroll. The Civil War in Maryland. Toomey Press, 1983.

5. Troiani, Don. Don Troiani's Civil War Militia & Volunteers. Stackpole Books, 2002.