Reenactors disappointed with discontinuation of New Market reenactment
by By Colby Johnson (whsv.com, Apr. 19, 2022)
NEW MARKET, Va. (WHSV) - Some civil war reenactors around the Valley are expressing their disappointment after the Virginia Museum of the Civil War made the decision to discontinue its annual reenactment of the Battle of New Market.
“This being canceled is upsetting to a lot of people because it’s a tradition, big time. It’s a tradition that really connects them to their personal and the history of this area,” said Mike Scheibe, a civil war reenactor living in New Market.
Scheibe has been a reenactor for 35 years and has participated in the Battle of New Market reenactment many times. He says he was saddened by the news of the reenactment being discontinued, but he wasn’t shocked as many people who have reenacted for years are now in their 60s and 70s.
“They have stopped doing events and with them, the numbers have diminished. Young people are not coming into the hobby at the rate they used to be,” said Scheibe.
The drop in reenactors is not unique to New Market. It’s something affecting living history events and reenactments across the U.S.
“I’m getting ready for an event here in Gettysburg this weekend and there used to be thousands of reenactors there, and now we’re lucky if we get a couple hundred on each side. It’s kind of sad to see how things are going,” said Trevor Ingram, a reenactor from Pennsylvania.
Ingram said he believes one reason for the decline in participation is the misconceptions surrounding reenactments.
“A major misconception is that anyone who dresses in Confederate gray is a racist of some sort or anything of the kind. We’re not out to glorify slavery, we’re there to tell a story and tell it properly the best we can,” he said.
The drop in participants, combined with safety concerns and rising costs, were the primary reasons for the end of the reenactment.
“If you have an event with more than 1,000 people you often have to carry very high levels of terrorism insurance. So if something happens there, if there’s some sort of an issue. There was a bomb at Cedar Creek a few years ago, if you have horses now the level of liability of someone getting hit with a horse drives the prices way up,” said Scheibe.
The ending of the reenactment is a disappointment for some who travel from all over the U.S. to participate.
“A lot of reenactments can get out of hand and the scenarios not be true to historical form but every time I’ve been to New Market it’s been on point. Very much the historic realism of this is what happened, this is how it happened,” said Trevor Ingram.
The annual event has also brought in a steady flow of visitors to the Town of New Market.
“Economically, exposure-wise, marketing-wise, and tourism-wise that reenactment is what drew everyone here in a big number all at once,” said Scheibe.
The event has also consistently been one of the busiest weekends of the year for businesses in the town.
“The local businesses and especially the businesses that count on these reenactments and living history are gonna get hurt. And in a time when we need more commerce, to be canceling these all over the country probably does more damage than good,” said John Krotec, a Civil War reenactor who lives in New Market.
One business that always saw a boost from the event was Southern Kitchen, a restaurant in the town.
“In the years before it was a really good thing for this business. It brought us a lot of return business because when people knew the battle was coming to town they prepared for it to come in,” said Cindy Reamer, a manager at Southern Kitchen who has worked at the restaurant for 42 years.
“It draws people from all over they get to see what we have to offer here, they get to see the battle, they get to see what the town offers. So it’s gonna be missed,” said Reamer.
John Krotec has been reenacting for over 20 years, but only recently moved to the Valley and was disappointed he won’t get a chance to be a part of the New Market reenactment.
“This Valley holds a special place in my heart because it was destroyed completely during the civil war and to see how the people have come back, generations of families. To see how much they respect their history is extraordinary and now not to be part of that at the level I thought, it makes it sad,” said Krotec.
Scheibe said while reenactor numbers are decreasing, public interest is not. He said that living history isn’t dying but it is changing.
“I stress for people if you miss the big reenactments go to some smaller events. You’re gonna get more hands-on history and you’ll learn more about what the civil war was really like at a smaller event than you will with all of the inaccuracies the big events sometimes bring,” he said.
For guys like Krotec, reenactments are about more than preserving Civil War history, it’s a display of what being an American is all about.
“Loving the country that you live in, fighting for something that’s much greater than yourself. To lose those reenactments is to lose a part of our history,” he said.
