Sunday, October 26, 2008

Re-Enacte the Crime?


The Civil War re-enactment world has been shaken. Last month, in a rural Virginia battle, a Union soldier (in real life, a retired NYC police officer) was shot in the shoulder.

It's war, right? Gotta have a casualty every so often. But the thing is, re-enactors aren't supposed to be carrying ammunition. Even though they get really serious about having historically accurate materials--homemade hardtack, yum!--they aren't any loaded weapons, just black powder for flash and bang.

"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."

Drama! I hope this is inspiration for a future CSI episode. I wonder who the one re-enactor is. It could have been a random mistake. (Apparently there were "walk-on" actors, who aren't associated with a unit and possibly don't know about chains of command or safety rules.) But honestly, for the narrative thread it would be so much better if someone had a grudge and found this as the perfect revenge. Too bad retired NYC police officers are made of steel!

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