War as a spectacle. Antietam

Philip Terzian rejects my concern about the effects of the re-enactment of Civil War battles: "As a middle Southerner descended from a Union army fatality at Antietam, I can say that re-enactors seem like harmless hobbyists to me, in the same category as model railroad enthusiasts or coin collectors. To suppose that re-enactments of Civil War battles fan the flames of regional hostility is a little like saying that productions of "Macbeth" lead to devolution in Britain. (By the way, the best recent study of the battle is entitled Landscape Turned Red by Stephen W. Sears.)"

RH: I certainly do not put these re-enactments in the same category as coin collecting. Philip's ancestor fought on the winning side. It is the losers who feel the salt rubbed into their wounds. In Texas, feeling about the Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto run deep. Incidentally, to counter Mexican criticism that films about the Alamo are just Hollywood productions, an effort is being made to produce a scrupulously accurate film. The producers even want to be accurate in details about Mexican uniforms, and they sent Warren Sessler to China (!!) to have copies of them made. Probably the producers decided that to have them made in Mexico would create problems. Coin collecting was never like that. As for "Macbeth", I do not know if it is being put to political use. In dictatorships it has been standard practice to stage a classical play which clearly implies a criticism of the current situation.

Ronald Hilton - 1/5/03