South Carolina's execution by firing squad: The last reenactment of the Civil War?

An illustration of a deserter being executed by a firing squad at the Federal Camp in Alexandria during the American civil war. Kean Collection/Getty Images

Americans have an appetite for reenacting the past, especially the battles of the U.S. Civil War, which took place from 1861 to 1865. Every year, in an effort to relive something of the nation’s bloodiest war, thousands don blue and gray uniforms and gather on fields where the distant echoes of war have since faded.

There are dozens of Civil War reenactments in the U.S. every year. Participants take them very seriously. Food, uniforms, even the smells of war – all are recreated to lend authenticity to the events. Only the bullets and shells are not “real.”