I go to military reenactments. A former coworker asked me early last year, Why would you find entertainment in watching the history of men dying? The simple truth is neither I nor my wife fine entertainment in that. We do find history. We do find pathos in emotion carried back in time to when it was and men and women did die. This simple conveyance of times gone to now is a link closer to reality of the past.

Reenactment..what of those who participate? The soldiers we meet are in general an historical lot. They know the events and study to know more. They feel a passion for those times now gone. They do in general have a feeling heart for what happened. One goal of most is to educate folks like me and others. Sure, they do entertain and present a scene to be viewed. They do want the audience to recognize the terrible truth of it all, the good of it all, and the history and living conditions of the soldiers and camp followers of the time. Believe me, well staged reenactments are history revisited, safely revisited without harm or danger.

When the heart jumps back and attempts to relive scenes presented, more truth sinks home of 23,000 dead men at one battle. Truth sinks home of Federal soldiers coming home on the Sultana paddle wheeler that blew up and sank above Memphis while taking home former prisoners and hospitalized soldiers. About 1700 died. Compare that to the Titanic and think again about history not reported and not known.

For the photographer, well-done reenactments offer wonderful images. Some simple ones are in the TomDart gallery. I do these images not as celebration but as reminders of human nature and nations. A Russian friend told me of a song the children used to singsomething like do the people want the war..the people do not want the war but countries and parts of countries sometimes do want the war. He is right on that. From almost any form of history we can learn.

Historical revisionists have little respect from me. Honest history is well respected, even if that history holds embarrassment and shame of times past. Surely, we move on and live a new life. Each day holds some opportunity for that.

Oh, Raisin Pitts! The grave of Raisin Pitts is in Frederick, Maryland. This same cemetery houses the tomb of Francis Scott Key, who in one sitting wrote both the Star Spangled Banner and the National Anthem.