some ejjits disrespecting culloden

**Dall_Piobaire** · 15th July 09, 08:58 AM

Originally Posted by beloitpiper

This happens too often. Beloit College has many Indian mounds around the campus and people treat those graves as if they were just some regular hill.

I know many, and agree wholeheartedly, that will go nowhere near indian burial grounds. There is one near my GF's place, and here father had warned her from early childhood to give it a wide berth

**macwilkin** · 15th July 09, 09:03 AM

Originally Posted by skauwt

i read this today... i couldnt believe the nerve of some folk using culldon as a picnic field its one thing having a picnic on a war grave but they had dogs also and well you know what dogs are good at... the very thought of a dugkeech on a war grave is so dam disrespectful

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/...ds/8150288.stm

Welcome to the world of a park ranger at a National Battlefield here in the States:

http://pastinthepresent.wordpress.co...-battlefields/

Todd

**Paul Henry** · 15th July 09, 09:05 AM

Originally Posted by Dall_Piobaire

I don't disagree Jock, but the slaughter, what Cumberland did to innocent people women and children....babies, burnt alive! Wounded men drug out and shot!!!

No that's no ordinary place and no ordinary sacrifice!

Any battlefield, anywhere in the world, with whatever countries fighting, have all their own stories, and all of them will have been horrific.

Today we hear more about war , almost first hand , often with the news media,sometimes with the people on the fields themselves.

In time, like all wars , stories and legends , fact and fiction will merge into an almost seemless story.
We only have some accounts of exactly what happened in the battles of history,so we do have to be careful of one viewpoint.

All places of war are important, and we should take care to remember the tradgedies that happened there , happened to both sides.

just my thoughts...

**Dall_Piobaire** · 15th July 09, 09:06 AM

Is that what you do Todd?

Thanks for your hard work dude, it is appreciated!

Scott

**Jock Scot** · 15th July 09, 09:08 AM

Originally Posted by Dall_Piobaire

I don't disagree Jock, but the slaughter, what Cumberland did to innocent people women and children....babies, burnt alive! Wounded men drug out and shot!!!

No that's no ordinary place and no ordinary sacrifice!

Dall, my dear chap, battles, any battle, are terrible things to behold and the real truth is, that no battle on earth, including the one going on in Afganistan today as I write, will humanity, women, children, the wounded, ever be 100% respected, however hard soldiers may try and however much people try tell you otherwise.That is a fact.

**macwilkin** · 15th July 09, 09:08 AM

Originally Posted by Dall_Piobaire

I have heard that they have built over many of the historic sites. It's a shame!!!

Here, the parks won't even let you do reenactments on historic battlefields anymore! Yet they let people do exactly what you are talking about. It's the memory that matters most, what was at stake what was sacrificed, and by whom! Keep that alive and you honor the thing!

There's good reason for that. Number one, there has only been one reeactment at a National Battlefield/Park/Historic site, and that was in 1961 at Yorktown. A number of state parks still do them, but thankfully they're moving to living history only too. "Reenacting" to NPS means mock combat scenarios; living history programs are talks, presentations and demonstrations.

As a former reenactor myself, let me just say I support the NPS "no reenactments" policy 100%, for these reasons:

1). While reenactments can be effective teaching tools, they are never 100% authentic, and to be quite honest, do we want them to be? One of the reasons why I stopped reenacting and only did living history for a number of years was because a WWII veteran commented to me at a reenactment about spectators "laughing and cheering" at simulated casualities -- no one was laughing or cheering when his buddies were killed in combat.

2). Insurance, liability and general cost. NPS barely gets enough money as it is to preserve its sites, let alone hire qualified individuals to cover the costs of reenactments -- and I knew a guy to lost almost $50,000 of his own money and his wife trying to sponsor one several years ago.

3). Damage to the archeological record. When the button pops off of your coat, or you drop a cap on the ground, you may be confusing future generations of archeologists. Not to mention the physical damage to the landscape from people and horses.

Living history is one thing, but I think NPS is right on this account.

Todd

**macwilkin** · 15th July 09, 09:13 AM

Originally Posted by Dall_Piobaire

Is that what you do Todd?

Thanks for your hard work dude, it is appreciated!

Scott

Scott,

I was a NPS interpretation ranger (seasonal) for 10 years at a Civil War Battlefield. I was proud to tell the story of those brave men, regardless of the colour of their uniform.

Todd

**macwilkin** · 15th July 09, 09:14 AM

Originally Posted by paulhenry

Any battlefield, anywhere in the world, with whatever countries fighting, have all their own stories, and all of them will have been horrific.

Today we hear more about war , almost first hand , often with the news media,sometimes with the people on the fields themselves.

In time, like all wars , stories and legends , fact and fiction will merge into an almost seemless story.
We only have some accounts of exactly what happened in the battles of history,so we do have to be careful of one viewpoint.

All places of war are important, and we should take care to remember the tradgedies that happened there , happened to both sides.

just my thoughts...

Well said, Paul.

Todd

**Dall_Piobaire** · 15th July 09, 09:21 AM

Oh I agree Todd, completely!

My closest park is Guilford Battleground. When I fitst started, in the late seventies, we were doing both living history and reenactments, then it went to more tactical demos, then just living history! It turns out the the course of the battle was misinterpreted, and they revised the whole thing!

Actually, though, and I know you know this, people did turn out, especially at Breed's hill, they had feakin picnics! I think they even did this some in the war between the states early on.

I would gather they got so much more then they bargained for!

At Yorktown in 81 they had us do more tactics and the surrender. Some vivid feelings at that place!

**macwilkin** · 15th July 09, 09:22 AM

Originally Posted by Dall_Piobaire

Oh I agree Todd, completely!

My closest park is Guilford Battleground. When I fitst started, in the late seventies, we were doing both living history and reenactments, then it went to more tactical demos, then just living history! It turns out the the course of the battle was misinterpreted, and they revised the whole thing!

Actually, though, and I know you know this, people did turn out, especially at Breed's hill, they had feakin picnics! I think they even did this some in the war between the states early on.

I would gather they got so much more then they bargained for!

At Yorktown in 81 they had us do more tactics and the surrender. Some vivid feelings at that place!

They were doing mock combat scenarios at Guilford? I have a friend working there this summer in their library -- I'll have to ask her if she has heard of that.

T.