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Civil War Re-enactor shot


Patrocles

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Interesting story from MSNBC

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27372438/?GT1=43001

intro...

Civil War-style CSI: Who shot the re-enactor?

Man portraying Union soldier injured; Confederate actor to blame?

Associated Press

updated 11:40 a.m. CT, Sat., Oct. 25, 2008

RICHMOND, Va. - In the passionate world of Civil War re-enactors, authenticity is everything — from uniforms with historically correct stitching to hardtack made from scratch.

A battle re-enactment last month pushed realism to the limits: A retired New York City police officer portraying a Union soldier for a documentary film was shot in the shoulder, possibly by a Confederate re-enactor.

The shooting sent the 73-year-old to the hospital and left the Isle of Wight Sheriff's Office in rural southeastern Virginia with a Civil War-style CSI case. Investigators used film to piece together what happened and have narrowed a suspect to one re-enactor.

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I think the giveaway is the ramrod that followed the musketball : )

I suppose that could happen, but I would expect it to be more likely that the ramrod would precede the ball.

BTW, I read somewhere a couple of years ago that after the battle of Gettysburg, unfired muskets were discovered on the field with as many as six or seven charges of powder and shot in them. A sign of nervousness perhaps? With that much powder packed in, maybe just as well that they weren't fired.

Michael

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They say the overloaded muskets were the result of nervousness, but personally I cannot imagine being too nervous to fire. I'd want to fire more than anything.

I suspect in a religious time, many of the men were uncomfortable killing on the battlefield, and perhaps loaded and loaded so as to appear as to be doing their job.

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This calls to mind something... I'm a big fan of the author Neal Stephenson, his book "Cryptonomicon" is one of my fav's of all-time. Anyhow, I believe it's in Cryptonomicon where he wrote something about the main character finds his friend not just merely drunk, but "at the level of drunkenness a Civil war solider might reach prior to having an infected limb sawed off with no anaesthetic"

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