The Beautiful Kind

I’m reading Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz again. It’s a ten-state travelogue detailing ways the South still identifies with the Civil War. The North may have moved on, but you’ll still see plenty of the “Fuck You” flag in grit territory. Horwitz goes on a Civil Wargasm with the guy on the cover of the book, which involves hitting as many Civil War sites and battlefields in a one-week period as possible. In period attire, of course.

The difference between hardcore and pansy reenactors is explained. For one, hardcores are called “living historians,” and they’ll go to great lengths to create an authentic experience, marching barefoot, eating moldy food, doing just about everything shy of getting really shot. The pansies are called “farbs.” They’ll cut corners by wearing their modern day glasses or smearing themselves with fake blood.

In the book, Horwitz tells of a Confederate veteran that was asked years after the war to demonstrate a Rebel Yell. He declined, stating, “It cain’t be pulled off with a full belly.”