Civil War Reenacting: Camp Life

By Matthew Pizzolato

The typical day for a soldier during the War began at 5 A.M when the bugler played Reveille. If you've never heard the tune, it's not something that can be slept through.

Soldiers actually spent very little of their time fighting.  The primary activity for a soldier was drilling. They would drill as many as five times a day, often for an hour or two at a time.  One soldier described his day in the following manner. "The first thing in the morning is drill. Then drill, then drill again. Then drill, drill, a little more drill. Then drill, and lastly drill."

Of course, there was the normal activity of camp life, such as cooking and chopping firewood and other routine tasks.

When they weren't drilling, they had to find ways to entertain themselves and for young men who were restricted to a military camp, there wasn't much to do.  Therefore, they had to find ways to alleviate their boredom. 

The number one activity was writing letters to their loved ones at home or reading letters they had received.  Sometimes they found distraction from their boredom by playing card games, mostly whist or euchre, or even having boxing matches.  One activity involved staging races between lice or cock roaches across a strip of canvas.

Alcohol was forbidden, but many managed to smuggle it past the guards.   If they couldn't buy liquor, they made their own.  Sometimes men would seek "horizontal refreshments." By the second year of the War, Washington, D.C. had 450 bordellos and more than 7,500 full time prostitutes. Venereal disease was a common ailment among soldiers. 

A lot of soldiers suffered from homesickness and many of them left their regiments, a crime that was severely frowned upon.  During the War, the Union Army executed 141 men for desertion.  

On the other hand, camp life for a reactor involves a lot less drilling.  We drill on occasion, practice different marching commands or go through the manual of arms to keep ourselves sharp, but we don't do it nearly on the scale the soldiers did.   

During the day and evening when we are not on the battlefield, we tend to relax as much as possible.  We cook our meals and tell stories around the campfire.  We will leave camp for a while to visit the sutlers for supplies to augment our reenacting gear. On Saturday nights, dances are held where we put on our best bib and tucker and the ladies wear ball gowns and hoop skirts. 

Sometimes during the afternoons, I have been known to take a nap because when we march to battle, it tends to be uphill both ways.  

Matthew Pizzolato's short stories have been published online and in print. He writes Western fiction featuring his antihero character, Wesley Quaid, that can be found in his story collection, The Wanted Man and the novella Outlaw. 

Matthew is the editor and webmaster of The Western Online, a magazine dedicated to everything Western and can be contacted via his personal website or on Twitter @mattpizzolato.