Carlsbad High students Gus Weyandt and Connor Hannan share the love for a unique hobby, reenacting the Civil War. They immerse themselves into history by participating in reenactments and enjoy these weekend adventures into the past. 

“The reenactments are a lot of fun,” junior Conner Hannan said. “We head out on Friday and set up camp. On Saturday we make breakfast and we have a battle or two, then usually the public comes through to take visits around camp and ask us questions. Then we will have another battle and then dinner. On Sunday we do the same thing we did on Saturday.”

During these battles, the public can watch these reenactments as a fun past time. While they watch they can see what it may have been like during the Civil War.

“We try to portray what it would be like for a soldier fighting in the civil war,” senior Gus Weyandt said. “I am a Union soldier but we have guys who come out that are on the Confederate side. We kind of just show what it would have been like to fight, live in the camps and march throughout the country.”

Not only are these life-like battles going on throughout the camps, but other activities that may have been going on in the daily life of a soldier as well.

“What the public sees is the battle, but after the battles are done, during the night, we campout,” Weyandt said. “We actually sleep in tents for a couple of days at a time. We play the banjo and fiddle. We try to immerse ourselves into that period as much as possible.”

There are many one of a kind encounters that often take place at the camps that continue to draw back participants in the reenactments.

“It’s fun just getting to experience what the soldiers would have experienced back then,” Hannan said. “We often do stuff like marching into battle, firing rifles, just living around in camp for a couple days like they would.”

Throughout the reenactments, no modern technology will be exposed so that they are as realistic as possible.

“We try to keep it as period correct as possible,” Hannan said. “Most everything that we use comes from back then like pocket watches and matches. We try to hide everything that isn’t period correct so that when people walk by all they see is the Civil War.”             

Not only is this a fun and different hobby but it has impacted these ‘soldiers’ by a long shot. It has given them a unique experience that will help them in the future.

“I love history and I’ll be studying it next year in college,” Weyandt said. “This is just kind of a way to learn more about history, immerse myself into the period and experience history first hand.”