Civil War re-enactment held amid strife
Dozens of soldiers, some as young as 11, sported the blue uniforms of Union soldiers as they stood at attention for the raising of the United States flag at Fort Point on Saturday.
The Civil War re-enactors marched into the fort for Living History Day, just one week after violent riots broke out on the other side of the country over the plan to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
White supremacists took to the streets of Charlottesville, Va., and the University of Virginia campus on Aug. 12 to protest the statue’s removal from a city park. Residents, civil rights leaders and onlookers took to the streets in counterprotest. One woman died in the riots.
The events in Charlottesville reignited a national
conversation about the appropriateness of Confederate monuments in cities nationwide.
But the national debate didn’t sway any plans for the re-enactment at Fort Point.
For Austin Bettencourt, 22, the point of Saturday’s re-enactment was education.
“It was the most defining war in our history,” he said. “It was what cemented the American mentality: We are a nation, a unified country.”
Bettencourt has been re-enacting the Civil War for 12 years. He said the annual event at Fort Point is meant to show a soldier’s daily life. No battles were fought at the fort or near San Francisco, but Union soldiers underwent vigorous training to prepare for battle.
Bettencourt dressed in a Union uniform Saturday, but most of his ancestors fought on the Confederate side. No matter which side they fought for, he said, it’s important to honor their sacrifice.
“The perseverance and the strength they had is beyond admirable,” he said. “And that’s something that needs honoring, no matter what.”
The plans for Fort Point’s construction in 1853 were signed by Jefferson Davis, then the U.S. secretary of war. Davis went on to become the president of the Confederate States of America.
That connection surprised San Rafael resident Joe Ridout, who brought his two daughters, Sierra, 4, and Ruby, 2, to the re-enactment. In light of the ensuing national debate, Ridout said, it was interesting to see the stark connection Fort Point has to the Confederacy.
But re-enactments are not political one way or another, he said.
“I think it’s a great way to introduce history on a face-to-face level,” he said. “I wanted these two little ones, who just came upon this world, to see something that’s been here for so much longer.”
Re-enactor Jamin Gjerman said Civil War re-enactments are different from monuments erected of Confederate generals, but they haven’t been immune from protests.
Gjerman, 23, has been re-enacting Civil War battles since he was 11, and said people have come out to protest events in the past, especially the use of Confederate flags.
He said it could get worse in light of the events in Charlottesville, but he plans to continue for the educational value of re-enactments.
“It gives people a way to experience things in context that you would never get the chance just studying it,” he said.
Many of the re-enactors are part of formal groups who travel around the state to play out battles and daily soldier life, sometimes for weeks at a time. Bettencourt said they study and research for hours to keep it as educational as possible and focus on the soldiers.
“To re-enact the Civil War is to honor them the best we can,” he said. “We’re not trying to make a political statement, we’re just telling it how it is.”