Civil War re-enactors say Confederate flag is a part of history
As a Civil War re-enactor portraying a Confederate soldier, Terrance Welch has gone to great lengths to ensure his uniform is historically accurate, right down to the buttons on his jacket.
“Our goal is to try to portray history as it actually happened,” said Welch, who traveled from Kansasville, Wisconsin, to participate in the Civil War Re-enactment Weekend at Fischer Farm in Bensenville.
That accurate portrayal of history extends to the Confederate battle flag, which hung over the Confederate encampment on Sunday despite recent controversy over where, and whether, the flag ought to be on public display.
“If I was flying it in my front yard, then I would have a problem,” said Chuck Lukavsky, a longtime Confederate re-enactor from Lombard. “But here, it's historically accurate. We can't go on the battlefield with a U.S. flag.”
The national debate over the Confederate flag was prompted by the June 17 shooting deaths of nine black people in a Charleston, South Carolina, church.
Welch agrees with those who question whether the Confederate flag should be flying at the state Capitol in South Carolina. However, he sees nothing wrong with displaying it at a Civil War re-enactment site.
“The Confederate flag is a part of history,” he said. “You can't take and erase it. It should be displayed under the proper setting and circumstance.”
Still, Dan Serdar of Spring Grove said his wife texted him on Saturday to ask if there were any protesters at the Bensenville re-enactment. Their two teenage sons were portraying Confederate soldiers.
“I told her, 'No. It was a beautiful day,'” Serdar said.
No one seemed to be offended by the flag at the Confederate camp Sunday. Some visitors even posed for photographs with it.
Of the hundreds of people who attended the re-enactment over the weekend, Lukavsky said many chatted with the re-enactors to learn more about the war and the soldiers who fought it.
“When people come through here, we try to give them an evenhanded example of what life was like in the Confederacy, why they fought and what they believed in.”
While some see the Confederate flag as a symbol of slavery and racism, re-enactors say they view it differently.
“The majority of us are historians,” said Gerry Bliss, a Union re-enactor from Elk Grove Village. “We don't see it as a symbol of hate or racism. We look at it as a legacy of what the Confederate Army was.”
Welch said he believes the Confederate flag stands for the sacrifice the people in the South made to try to become an independent country.
Unfortunately, he said, “some goofy groups” use the flag as a symbol of their hate and bigotry.
“It's really a travesty,” Welch said. “It's insulting to me.”