“Another year has nearly closed but before I moralize I will revert to facts… Harvey and our clerk John have together taken French Leave” (Civil War Diary of Sam Richards entry dated Dec. 31, 1862).

Civil War events, including reenactments and living histories, are traditionally scheduled for weekends, since this is when most participants have time to attend and spectators can see the programs. It also means the event usually features a variety of activities on both Saturday and Sunday, usually finishing up Sunday afternoon. However, there is a noticeable difference in event attendance and participation on Sunday. The fall-off in participation on Sunday, or least discussion about it as trend, began to emerge after the 150th cycle of events. It is often called the “Sunday casualty rate.” A brief discussion of “Civil War event mathematics” may be in order.

The math works out about like this: An event is planned and advertised many months in advance. There are usually incentives in the form of discounts to register early and often there is a cut-off date. So let’s say 100 register by the registration deadline and pay their fee to attend an event. Of that 100 who registered, it understood that some smaller number will actually show up on Saturday morning with their gear. The

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question is, how many? A comrade actually tracked the statistics on participation rates for a period of several years beginning in 2002 at both mainstream and the progressive/campaigner variety known as “Events By Us For Us” (EBUFU). Strangely, the attrition rate is about the same. He states, “I carefully tracked registrations for all participants and was later able to compare them with the actual strengths according to the morning reports. As a general rule “pre-event attrition” seemed to run around 25-35%.” He also noted that these numbers varied according to the perceived event quality, arm of service, rank, and distance traveled to attend. The highest was 44% and the average “was about a third (33%).” The attrition rate for events that allowed or encouraged walk-ons tended to be lower, the walk-ons obviously compensating more or less for those who registered but didn’t come.

That part of the equation is very much unchanged since he began keeping track of the data fifteen years ago. What has changed is the number of participants who now leave the event after the first day. This is the so called “Sunday Casualty rate.”

Among arm of services, cavalry and artillery have the lowest casualty rates.

He opined that’s due to the logistical challenges of moving horses and guns, which makes sense. These units seem much less likely to make a casual commitment than say, rank and file

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Infantry. If the unit plans to go, nearly all of them will try to attend and stay until the event concludes on Sunday afternoon. The other main factor affecting the Sunday casualty rate is the rank of the participant. As might be expected, the higher the rank, the more likely the person will attend and stay until the end. In addition, frequency of attendance has an effect on how rank is achieved to begin with. The thinking goes, the higher the rank of the participant, the more responsibility there is to attend and the more likely that leaving early would be noticed.

A recent example that illustrates this trend is the 2017 CHCH (Chickamauga and Chattanooga) National Military Park 154th Anniversary programs. There were a variety of programs scheduled for the weekend, including a portrayal of the 23rd Tenn. (C.S.) Infantry, which had been promoted for almost a year on the Authentic Campaigner internet forum as one of their EBUFU events. Additionally, there were also two full days of artillery programs put on by park service gun crews for CHCH, STRI (Stones River) and KEMO (Kennesaw Mtn). According to CHCH park ranger Christopher Young, for the 23rd Tenn. Inf. event they had expected 90+ participants, as of Saturday morning there were 58 who made it. This tracks very closely with what might be expected in terms of event numbers. However, that

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Sunday morning the number of infantry was down to about 30. In contrast, the Artillery sections did not experience the same attrition. They had virtually the same number on Saturday morning as they did on Sunday afternoon.

There are probably as many reasons for the early departures on Sunday as participants in Civil War events. The most common reasons given for leaving early on Sunday include the distance necessary to return home, weather, illness, and family emergencies. However, that doesn’t explain why the casualty rate is disproportionally impacting the rank and file infantry vs. the other arms of service. One possible factor in play at Chickamauga was that many artillery crewmen rode to the event in the same truck with the artillery piece and they weren’t as easily able to leave before the event ended. More rank and file infantrymen drove and therefore they could more easily take French leave after the Saturday programs.

Whatever the case, the “Sunday casualty rate” is probably a trend and it is becoming the new normal at many post-150th Civil War events, both mainstream and the progressive/campaign variety. An unanswered question is how long before future Civil War events become scheduled for Saturday only?

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Craig L Barry was born in Charlottesville, Va. He holds his BA and Masters degrees from the University of North Carolina (Charlotte). Craig served The Watchdog Civil War Quarterly as Associate Editor and Editor from 2003-2017. The Watchdog published both books and columns on the material culture of the mid-19th century and donated all funds from publications to battlefield preservation.