Taking Casualties - My Thoughts on a Reenactment problem that is ruining the hobby

There is an interesting paradox when it comes to reenacting, one that I haven’t seen in any other hobby I have been part of.  The paradox is this: almost every reenactor I talk to says we need more casualties on the battlefield and always complains that the people they are shooting at and those around them that are being shot at don’t take hits, yet no reenactor has an answer to this problem.  You see the paradox?  The answer is simple.  Take a hit yourself.  Who cares what part of the battle it is, go out there and get shot, because that is why you are there, to get shot, plain a simple.  Casualties are what the spectators want to see, casualties are what the reenactors want to see, so, let give everyone casualties.  

Oh, if only it were that simple, right?  Well, it is that simple, which is what I don’t understand.  If you want to see more casualties on the field start by taking one yourself.  I’ve seen it before.  No one really wants to be the first one to go down, but then after one goes down more start to fall, almost as if that first casualty is an ice breaker.

Now, one problem I have heard often is that if we take too many casualties in the beginning then there won’t be enough reenactors to make the battle last the full half hour to an hour, which is why no one goes down in the beginning.  My answer to that, who gives a rat’s ass how long the battle lasts?  If given the choice between a fifteen minute battle with casualties on top of casualties and one where people shoot at each other for an hour only to have casualties during the last five minutes, spectators choose the first (I have polled them, so don’t try to argue with me).  Short deadly intense battles are what they come to see, especially after hearing everyone talk about how deadly this war was.  To further emphasize this think about the movie Saving Private Ryan when it first came out.  What did people talk about?  The great storyline, or the opening scene on the beach?  They talked about the beach, and if we gave them scenes like that at our battles, they would be talking about them more, and then more people would come out to our events and suddenly reenacting would be popular again (if anyone argues that it hasn’t gone downhill in the last several years you should probably just get off the field now).  

Now, The Orphan Boys Mess does take casualties.  In fact, we took so many casualties during our last battle that the outcome had to be changed since we were supposed to win.  This, of course, angered the guy in charge of the confederate forces, but since he was dismounted cavalry his opinion doesn’t really matter because just the fact that they do dismounted cavalry shows how little they care about accurately representing the real soldiers that found this war (now maybe there are some authentic cavalry units out there that do a good job, my hats off too you, but the ones in the Chicago area are just a bunch of cowboys that like to shoot their pistols and make a mockery of everything reenacting stands for).  You know what the result of those casualties was, the guys on the other side took massive casualties as well the next day, which, when added to our own casualties that day, made the battle look really good, one which the spectators loved.  The same thing has happened when we have taken cannon hits.  We took a hit from them and they reciprocated the next day.  

So, if you want to start seeing more casualties on  the field, start by taking them yourself, and really, stop worrying about how long the battles lasts, because no one really cares.  Quality not quantity should be our goal, especially if we want these spectators to keep paying to see us out there, which is needed if we want to keep reenacting.