![]() I’ve taught classes about the Civil War, and to be able to share the experience-without people shooting at you-is useful. ![]() For me, doing the movements that the military made always informed my teaching. I disconnect myself from the 21st century as much as I can. But it’s not really it’s a generic representation, with the Feds winning one day and the Confederates winning the other day.Īnd then we have the national reenactments that are specific to the battle.įor me, part of it is talking to people, camping out with buddies, and having a good time. For example, we go to Naperville and say this is the Battle of Fort Donaldson. And in those cases, we may be doing the Battle of X, but there’s really no resemblance to that battle. I like to stay in the first person, and chat with people about why we are there and what we do. Those can be just one side, where you just talk to people. LS: Sometimes it’s a living history, not a reenactment. So now I may do it three or four times a year.īGES Blog: What does a reenactment look like? What do you get out of it? Once the 150th anniversaries passed, there has been less interest. The young people are not getting involved. Sometimes we don’t even have 100 reenactors any more. LS: Not as often as I would like! In the last 10 or 15 years the hobby has slid downhill in numbers. I did an assistant surgeon with the 55th until I got more equipment and did an infantryman with the 104th. They had just started the 55th Illinois, attached to the 104th Illinois, so I did both. ![]() Now I had the stuff … I called up my track coach friend and asked how to get involved. And my wife, on our 20th anniversary, bought me a copy of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain’s uniform from the company that made uniforms for the movie Gettysburg. So my team bought me a reproduction staff and field sabre that would have been carried by a field officer in an infantry unit. Then some years later, I won my 500th career win in fencing. I couldn’t afford the cost of a musket, and I didn’t really know how to get into it. Years later, after I was appointed fencing coach for the North Shore Region of the Prairie State Games, I ran into a guy, the women’s track coach at Glenbrook South HS, who also reenacted. So I went into African history-my father’s field. It would have killed my dad if I went into military history. But when I went to college, we were a family of protestors in the middle of the Vietnam War. So I was always interested in the Civil War. I have a complete set, starting with John Brown. You would go to the supermarket, pay your nickel, and get these cards and bubble gum. They published 50 or so baseball cards, but Civil War stuff. I remember when I was 10, it was the Centennial in 1960. I was always interested in the American Civil War. The 55th Illinois | photo courtesy of Laurie SchillerīGES Blog: How did you get started? How long have you been doing it? We caught up with Laurie, who still lives in Chicagoland with his wife, to learn about his hobby. He’s been a full-blown Civil War reenactor since 1994, typically representing the North. Interestingly, those jobs fit nicely into the broader scope of what Laurie loves to do-and continues to do: Reenact. BGES Treasurer Laurence Schiller retired in 2016 from his “real-life” profession at Northwestern University as history professor and the second winningest fencing coach in NCAA history.
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