Civil War for the day

The Gray Ghost was a short movie created in 48 hours for the 48 hour Film Festival. Our assigned genre was fantasy, and we also had to include the character Billy Langevin; the line "Just do it yourself"; and a key as a prop. Our movie won Best Use of Character. Our thanks to everyone involved!

Full Measure of Devotion is an intimate documentary about the Pennsylvania Civil War reenacting group Cooper’s Battery B; it shows the interesting lives of these living historians, as they fight to keep history alive during the Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War.
As the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War comes to a close, many reenactors are thinking of hanging up their muskets and retiring from the battlefield. But one reenacting group from Pennsylvania is fighting to keep the hobby alive for at least another hundred and fifty years.
The Cooper’s Battery B reenacting group and the Philadelphia-based production company Roxbro Films are planning several screenings of their award winning Civil War reenactor documentary, Full Measure of Devotion, with the hope of interesting more people in reenacting, while encouraging current reenactors to stick with the hobby. The documentary focuses on the lives of Battery B reenactors, both on and off the battlefield, and offers an intimate portrait of reenacting during the Sesquicentennial anniversary. Last month the film won Best Feature Film at the Flagship City Film Festival in Erie, Pennsylvania.
The movie is the product of nearly two years of effort by filmmaker John McGlaughlin as he traveled with the men and women of Cooper’s Battery B to several reenactments, including the one-hundred-and-fiftieth of Gettysburg, Cedar Creek, Manassas, and Spotyslvania Courthouse. The idea for the film stemmed from a fortuitous meeting between McGlaughlin and Battery B Sergeant Gene Kistner at a reenacting event in April of 2013. “I had never been to a reenactment before, and was struck by how much dedication, sacrifice, and hard work goes into being a reenactor, whether North, South, civilian or military”, McGlaughlin said. “My plan was to share that story with as many people as possible”. The movie was made on a shoestring budget and was independently financed through McGlaughlin’s day job as a Public Defender. McGlaughlin ultimately spent six months whittling down nearly fifty hours of footage he had amassed to 77 minutes for the feature-length version of the film.
The original Cooper’s Battery B was a Union artillery battery recruited out of Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. It fought at many of the Civil War’s most momentous battles, including Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. Cooper’s Battery B reenacting group was formed in the mid-1990’s in central Pennsylvania, and includes over fifty members from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Canada. Many of the reenactors in the battery have been reenacting for over fifteen years.
McGlaughlin thinks the documentary is unique because it puts the spotlight on reenactors as individuals and closely examines the hobby from an insider’s perspective. “A lot of the public cannot understand why a reenactor would voluntarily head out to a sweltering battlefield on a summer’s day, clad in wool” said McGlaughlin. “I think this movie offers some insights to that question and many others surrounding the hobby.”
The grassroots film tour is entitled The Civil War Reenactor Moving Picture Show and will feature a sixty-minute version of the documentary in addition to guest speakers, merchandise and DVD’s. The tour is making stops at several locations throughout the year, including the reenactments of Gettysburg, Manassas, and Cedar Creek. The documentary will primarily screen outdoors during the summer using the group’s portable theater system, and will travel to an area if there is an audience. “We’re using social media and word of mouth to schedule screenings,” McGlaughlin said. “If a group wants a screening in their area, give me a shout and I’ll do my best to make it happen.”
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The reenacting group hopes that their roving tour will help share the story of reenactors to a broader audience and also interest more people into joining their ranks. A portion of the tour’s profits will be donated to the repair and maintenance of monuments at Gettysburg through the Pennsylvania Gettysburg Monument Project. Once the 2015 tour is complete, McGlaughlin plans on submitting the film to PBS and other independent television broadcasters. More info about the documentary and the film tour can be found at fullmeasuremovie.com. More info about the Cooper’s Battery B reenacting group can be found at coopersbattery.limewebs.com.

Rico says he stopped reenacting with the end of the Sesquicentennial, but it's good to see people continuing to reenact...