DATE: Sunday, March 9, 1997                 TAG: 9703090160

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: PAUL SOUTH

DATELINE: MANNS HARBOR                      LENGTH:   88 lines

CIVIL WAR HOLDS SPECIAL MEANING FOR RE-ENACTOR

As a technician for Carolina Telephone, Dick Armstrong's hands firmly grasp 21st century technology.

But his face looks as though it were plucked from a Matthew Brady photograph taken more than a century ago. Eyes like Stonewall Jackson, the general known as ``Old Blue Light.'' A dripping goatee the color of rusted metal.

His countenance could have seen the bloodshed of Cold Harbor, or the slaughter of Pickett's division at Gettysburg, or Ulysses S. Grant signing the treaty that ended the War of the Republic.

Armstrong's is a face of the Civil War.

And as a member of the 26th North Carolina Infantry, Armstrong and his comrades in look-alike arms re-enact life as it was more than 130 years ago.

He is a weekend warrior, sometimes wearing Union blue, other times Confederate gray. When Confederate, he is a member of the 26th North Carolina Re-enactors, when federal, the 24th Michigan Regiment.

``It's the best hobby anyone could have,'' said Armstrong, 43. ``I will celebrate my 10th anniversary this year. I enjoy it because of the people that you meet. There's such a wide variety of people. We've got lawyers, airline pilots, people you wouldn't ordinarily keep company with, all because we have a special interest in the history of that time.

``I don't often come in contact with lawyers and pilots, but something about sitting around a campfire . . . I don't know. You get that `band of brothers' feeling. To be part of a historical activity and dressing up in old-timey clothes is a lot of fun.''

What fires Armstrong's interest in the era is in part tradition, in part spiritual. An amateur historian, Armstrong owns more than 700 volumes on the war.

``I guess it was a more simple time,'' Armstrong says. ``They had different stresses than we had today. Death was a lot closer to most people during that time. A family could have 10 children, and three or four would die before they were a year old.''

``Life was more of an adventure. They had to work very, very hard just for survival. We work today, but it's completely different.''

Armstrong's ties to the Civil War run deeper than weekend re-enactments. He has the blood of the conflict coarsing through his veins.

``My great-grandfather, Henry Armstrong, was part of the 8th North Carolina, and fought at the Battle of Roanoke Island,'' Armstrong said.

``My great-great-uncle, Richard Kratch, served in the North Carolina Artillery. Another great-great-grandfather, David Buckner, served in the 44th Tennessee. The more reading you do, the more you find out.''

One of Armstrong's relatives was captured by Union forces, and died in a prison camp in Elmira, N.Y. He has visited his great-grandfather's final resting place.

``It was a very emotional thing for me, and for my children,'' Armstrong says. ``A lot of people remember Andersonville (Georgia), and the brutality the Union troops faced there. But few people remember that the Confederate Army could barely feed their own, much less prisoners. I've heard it said that it's a greater sin when you have things to give, and can't give them. The federals could have fed those men.''

Armstrong has marched in re-enactments at Gettysburg, Antietam and other historic sites. He joined re-enactors at last year's Freedman's Colony celebration on Roanoke Island. And, some of his comrades have marched across the TV screen, appearing in ``Gettysburg,'' the movie about the famous battle.

``We have about 240 men in the regiment,'' he says. ``But it's kind of like a church roll. You never get everybody out.''

The unit also has a Soldiers' Benevolent Society, made up of women and children, as well as civilians posing as war correspondents, illustrators and photographers. To get started in the hobby, it requires some investment. Participators are sticklers for historical accuracy.

``It costs about $1,000,'' Armstrong says. ``But just about any hobby you get serious about costs that kind of money. At every re-enactment, you have `sutlers' who sell anything you need. You could walk into a tent, and come out dressed out from hat to boots.''

The Civil War often comes to us wrapped in flag and bugle and drum. But Armstrong remembers it as a war of God-awful brutality. One-fifth of Mississippi's budget in 1866 went to the purchase of artificial limbs.

``There were battles where 1,000 soldiers would die in an hour,'' Armstrong said. ``The world had never seen such brutality.''

As for the lesson the Civil War can teach here at the edge of the 21st century, Armstrong put it simply.

``We all live on the same planet, and we've got to co-exist,'' Armstrong says. ``We need to find a way to get along better than we're doing it. God created all of us. If we don't, it's going to happen again.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

RECRUITERS

The 26th North Carolina Regiment is holding a recruiting drive for

anyone interested in the Civil War era. For more information, call

Dick Armstrong at 473-3371.

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