A look at the stupid ‘high elevation’ rule at civil war reenactments

You know, I was going to start this article out by asking if any other reenactors out there have noticed that the high elevation safety rule when firing our rifles at each other on the battlefield is being taken way too far, but truth is I don’t have to ask because I have heard many reenactors talking about this, both on the field and off it.  Now, make no mistake, I am not advocating that we ignore this safety rule, but I do feel that many reenactors out there are taking it way too far.  Aiming the rifle just above the head should be enough for every position on the battlefield outside of twenty five yards.  Once within that range then we should be pointing a little higher, or maybe not really firing at all, but should never have our rifles pointed straight up in the air to fire and expect the spectators to think we are shooting at anything other than the sky.  This is what happens though.  Even when we are on opposite sides of the field reenactors are still pointing their rifles straight up or at an angle that makes it look like they are shooting birds (all while the cannons are still leveling at us, which is much more dangerous than a rifle), but acting as if they are still shooting at the enemy.  Furthermore at these distances it is actually more dangerous to point the rifle anywhere but directly at the person you are firing at due to the fact that if something is in the barrel (something other than a bullet I am assuming) and it gets fired, it will actually fly farther if we elevate the rifles, where as if we are pointing them right at each other, it would fall short.  Also, in all my years of reenacting I have never seen anyone
hurt by simple rifle fire during a battle.  I have seen people hurt by being stupid, but that is a different story all together.  Bottom line, we are going way too far with this high elevation crap, and it looks really stupid.  Worse yet, even when their men are aiming at the birds, many commanders still yell ‘high elevation’ which can be heard by the spectators, almost as if this command is a computer program set to go off every five minutes during a battle.  Let’s stop this nonsense.  It’s important to be safe, but taking it this far is just silly and is one of the reasons this hobby is viewed as a joke by the rest of society.