Differences Between Christopher Bates And Tony Horwitz

Christopher Bates and Tony Horwitz both write intriguing pieces that detail the methods, actions, and feelings of men whose hobby it is to reenact the Civil War. As detailed by Bates, a majority of them—two thirds of them actually—portray Confederate soldiers. While Bates writes his article more on the basis of why these men, so far-removed from a war, desire to dress up as soldiers that lost the war and were fervent supporters slavery. Horwitz on the other hand, in the opening chapter of an extensive book on the subject, details his childhood interest in the Civil War and his participation in an reenactment near his home in rural Virginia. The Civil War’s memory is a vibrant one still, particularly if one compares it to other historical events

The question being: are they racists? Bates attempts to answer this question, first, by detailing two Confederate reenactors: Vern Padgett and Don Wirth. Padgett, as Bates describes, is a “diehard Confederate reenactor” (pg. 191) and though a California native, speaks frequently about “misinformed Yankee propagandists” and his strongly held belief that the Confederate Army had as many as 200,000 African American soldiers serving in its ranks. Naturally, professional historians dismiss his claims, but his devotion to the ‘southern cause,’ while also being a Confederate reenactor furthers people’s notions of them being racist. Wirth on the other hand, growing up in the 1950’s and 1960’s, was heavily influenced by southern and Confederate romanticism, this was done through toys, magazines, and television shows, his sentiment is that the war was “full of passion and heroism and noble deeds” (pg. 193) seems in line with Lost Cause thinking. Yet his interest in the Civil War and the Confederacy ends there: it is simply a hobby for him. So therein lies the contrast between the two men, and those who reenact the Civil

He had immersed himself completely in the Civil War, at least until his teenage years when he embraced 1960’s pop-culture. His story of Confederate reenactors begins at his home when he and his wife were woken up to the familiar sounds of gunshots outside. When they looked out the window, they saw a group of Confederate reenactors staging a battle across the street, they were falling dead on their lawn. Intrigued, Horwitz went up to learn more about them and discovered an eclectic group of diehard (or “hardcores” as they call themselves) reenactors. One such ‘hardcore’ was Robert Lee Hodge, who was “tall, rail-thin, with a long pointed beard” and a “filthy uniform” (pg. 7). Hodge had a unique talent that he displayed in front of Horwitz. While not only looking physically like a starving Confederate solider, he keeled over, swelling his stomach and contorting himself like those dead, bloated soldiers on the battlefields of Gettysburg and Antietam. This, as Horwitz would learn, was the way of life for Hodge, for others it was an extreme passion. One hardcore told Horwitz that reenacting consumed at least a quarter of his income; while another stated that his girlfriend broke up with him because he loved the Civil War as much as he loved her, if not more so. Another reenactor stated that