types of reenactors

The Types of Reenactors There are thought to be four types of Reenactors. Farbs Some, called "Farbs," are reenactors who spend relatively little of their time or money maintaining authenticity with regard to uniforms, accessories, or even period behavior. The 'Good Enough' attitude is pervasive among Farbs, although perhaps few casual observers would be able to point out flaws in their impressions. Blue jeans, tennis shoes, polyester (and other man-made fabrics), zippers, velcro, snoods and other modern things are prevalent. Some think the origin of the word is a truncated version of "Far be it from authentic." An alternative definition is "Far Be it for me to question his impression", or "Fast And Research-less Buyer" Mainstreamer Another group of reenactors is often called "Mainstream." These reenactors are somewhere between farb and authentic. They are more common than either farbs or authentics.

Authentic/Progressives Another type of reenactor is the "Authentic/Progressive". They try to recreate life in the Civil War to the fullest, researching details of material goods and operations in a quest for accuracy. They are constantly trying to "progress" in their knowledge and other aspects of the mid-19th century. Hard-Cores On the opposite side from farbs, you have "Hard-Cores" or "stitch counters". Though they usually posses a wealth of knowledge, some hard-cores sometimes take the hobby to an extreme, even to the point of refusing to take part in battles because they know they can't experience authentic wounding from live 1860's weapons. Less extremely, a number of hard-cores crash-diet themselves in the lead-up to campaign season in order to look like authentic under-fed Southern soldiers, such as would have been part of Stonewall Jackson's foot cavalry. Many people have misconceptions about hardcore reenactors, which spawn from a published book about hardcore reenactors, Confederates in the Attic. Such things as urinating on buttons to "make them look old", even though an actual soldier from the American Civil War would have had relatively new things issued to them. Hard-cores are typified by their disregard for farbs, whose frequently corpulent appearance and inaccurate dress is a source of great irritation.