Fresno County Civil War reenactment getting a facelift but not until 2021. Here’s why

Last year, the Fresno County Historical Society began the process of re-imagining its yearly Civil War Revisited fundraiser.

The group was looking for a living-history event driven less by battle reenactments and more by the stories and histories that developed the central San Joaquin Valley in the late 19th century.

“We found pretty quickly there was a need to have local history done better,” says Elizabeth Laval, who became president of the historical society in September.

The inaugural rebranded event — “Time Travelers: 19th Century America” — was slated to be unveiled this October, to coincide with the longstanding date of Civil War Revisited at Kearney Park.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the new event will take place in 2021, the society announced last month.

“As much as we had hoped to hold our inaugural Time Travelers event this fall, the priority of our organization has to be on the health and safety of our visitors and staff,” said the historical society’s board president, Martin Ilic.

In the meantime, the historical society is working with Fresno Unified on curriculum to fill the void for students, Laval says. It will compare the flu pandemic of 1918 with the current pandemic affecting the nation.

Civil War reenactment in Fresno

For 30 years, the Civil War Revisited has served as the historical society’s largest fundraiser, drawing thousands of local students — and a few adult history buffs, no doubt — to a weekend of battle reenactments, complete with uniformed soldiers, horses, campfires and cannons, plus visits from figures of the time like Abraham Lincoln and Elizabeth Keckley, the former slave turned author and confidant to Mary Todd Lincoln.

The event in recent years had come under criticism from community members who saw it as a celebration of war and of the Confederacy.

“I think some people’s interpretation of the Civil War is different from mine,” Rev. Booker T. Lewis of Rising Star Missionary Baptist Church said in an interview in 2017, in the wake of a national outcry against Confederate symbols, including the flag and statues of Confederate leaders.

“I’ve heard it (Civil War re-enactments) described as a great opportunity for engaging history and remembering a significant time in our country’s history, but for me, and for many people like me, that’s not a celebratory memory. That’s a horrid part of our past.”

Civil War and Fresno history

Laval says moving away from the reenactment of the war has nothing to do with politics or current conversations on race and everything to do with broadening the historical perspective and telling local stories.

“These people came from somewhere,” Laval says. “They have journeys. They have stories. Let’s tell those stories.”

The Civil War portions won’t go away, to the extent that it’s relevant to what’s being taught. There may be actors portraying Lincoln or Keckley answering questions at a Time Traveler event.

You’ll also get the stories of Dr. Thomas Meux and Dr. Chester Rowell; both fought in the Civil War — on opposing sides — and ended up being prominent figures in Fresno history.

“Why not take that story and make it local,” Laval says.

There will also be gold miners and cowboys and a recreation of the Italian, Armenian and Chinese settlements that made up west Fresno in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The event “will look and feel and smell very different,” she says.

“When you can do it in a living history, where people can interact and engaged, what’s a better way to learn?”

This story was originally published July 7, 2020 at 9:54 AM.