Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 1, 1990 TAG: 9006290433
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KARIN ROBBINS SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
But 10 or 12 weekends a year, Linkous, his son Scott, 16, and his daughter Deanna, 12, load up their camping gear and their two horses, Traveler and Canaan. On these family outings, Linkous wears a different uniform - Confederate gray. Linkous and his son, Scott, ride for the Virginia Ninth Cavalry.
Linkous first saw a Civil War re-enactment six years ago when he and his family attended the annual Mother's Day re-enactment at New Market.
Linkous said, "My son was pretty small then, and I thought it would be neat to get him a little uniform."
When asked what first interested him about re-enactments, Linkous replied, "I've wondered that a lot. Why would I get up and dress in wool uniforms when it's 90 degrees and roast?
"Probably everyone would give a little different answer," he continued. "It's part of our heritage. The war actually happened right here. Another reason is that I'm the chaplain for the unit. I feel that's what the Lord wanted me to do.
"We've found actual Gospel tracts from the Civil War, and we hold church services. I'm with a non-denominational organization called Re-enactors Missions for Jesus Christ."
Scott enjoys other aspects of re-enactments: "It's still fun, trying to knock other people off their horses," he said.
But, said Linkous, "Now that Scott has a car and a job, my daughter goes with me more the he does now. She dresses up in long skirts. At a lot of these events on Saturday night they'll have a dance, where the women will wear hoop skirts. It's a family thing. The women don't take part in the battle, but they are part of camp life."
Camp life is as authentic as the soldiers can make it. They light the camp with tin lanterns, stow their gear in wooden footlockers and sleep on quilts in cotton canvas A-tents. They cook over an open fire.
"They usually try to cook up a meal that they would have eaten back then," said Linkous.
"Our plates and forks are authentic replicas. You don't see any pop cans or anything like that."
Sometimes the soldiers can carry authenticity too far, Linkous said. "Up in Gettysburg [Pa.], early Sunday morning there were some chickens running around, and when we came back through they were cooking them."
After a weekend of primitive cooking, he added, "One thing we enjoy, after we go through a whole weekend like that, is stopping at a steak place and getting something to eat."
Weekend usually include two battles. One battle is scripted - it's a battle that actually took place and is being re-enacted. The organizers research the movements of the battle. While the soldiers usually can't play the parts of specific people in the Civil War, they can position and move their units so that the battle takes place as it did during the war. Everyone knows the outcome of the scripted battle.
The second battle of the weekend is unscripted with no set plans or winner.
When asked if he thought the re-enactments glorified the war, Linkous replied, "It would have to, wouldn't it? I'd like to think that it didn't, that we were showing history. What we have to remember is that these people suffered and died."
Whether people are interested in history or glory, re-enactments draw large crowds. This year at Gettysburg, Linkous said, 6,000 people participated, and 250,000 watched.
Despite the difficulties of getting insurance and permits, the real problem scheduling re-enactments is getting people to fight as Federals.
"It's funny at a battle, most of the people will want to do Confederate," said Linkous. "Even people from the North, which is kind of strange, but you get a lot of people up from Maryland and New York who want to do Confederate."
What happens is that a lot of units have to "galvanize" or switch sides. Linkous said, "Our unit does it a lot. We probably do more Union than we do Confederate. A lot of units are like that because when you go to a battle [you may have] 200 people, and 175 want to be Confederates. It doesn't look too good to the public; you've got 25 Federals running around, and 175 Confederates chasing them."
For Linkous there are some advantages to playing Federal. In the Union army, Linkous wears a lieutenant's uniform and rides as staff chaplain. Regardless of which side he rides with, Linkous says he won't wear his chaplain's uniform into battle, although there are accounts of chaplains who did fight.
"We're not trying to kindle old flames or anything," he said. "We just want to recreate history."
by CNB