Jeremy Stephens' birthday is two days before the Fourth of July.
When a person's birthday is linked that closely to a nation's celebration of its birth, an interest in history might be expected. But Stephens, a designer of commercial fire protection systems at GFS Texas, isn't just interested in history. He lives it.
Stephens is an aficionado of Civil War battles who has participated in more reenactments than he can count.
"I got into it in college. Now, I probably do eight reenactments a year -- more in the spring and fall. The ones in the winter can be brutal," he says.
Stephens has suited up for both the blue and the gray (Union and Confederacy). His commitment to historical accuracy can determine which uniform he will pull from his trunk.
"If I go to an event and 200 people dress up as Confederates and only 50 as federal soldiers, that doesn't look right in a battle the Union won. On the fly, we will change uniforms. In the end, what we want to do is portray history as accurately as possible," he notes.
Stephens admits to being "pretty extreme" because he takes authenticity beyond the battlefield.
"On Friday, I will leave after work and set up my camp. I'm a First Sergeant, so in the morning, I'll do the paperwork a First Sergeant must do. When we're camping, we live as the soldiers during the Civil War," Stephens says.
That means no nice sleeping bags or coolers of beer. It does mean sleeping under canvas tents, cooking over a fire, and eating meals of squirrel and snake.
As First Sergeant, Stephens reports to the captain, who leads the company that Stephens joined in college (the 22nd Arkansas). Several companies belong to the same battalion (in this case, the 1st Arkansas). The 1st Arkansas is a member of a higher brigade and the brigade, in turn, is part of an army.
"It's structured like an actual army. When troops are engaged in battle, which can last from 30 to 90 minutes, I stand behind them to make sure they are firing correctly," he explains. "I also keep an eye on safety."
Stephens' favorite Civil War clash is the Battle of Gettysburg; coincidentally, it is the first war reenactment he saw in person when his grandparents took him, as a youngster, for his birthday.
"I thought it was fascinating," he recalls. "I saw people who were portraying Confederate Army generals James Longstreet or George Picket or Union General George Gordon Meade. They looked exactly like the person they were trying to portray."
Stephens traces his early interest in the Civil War to a movie he watched repeatedly: Gettysburg.
"It was almost five hours long. I was eight years old. I would watch it and never move, never squirm," he says.
When asked if his hobby has made him more patriotic, he responds with palpable thought and care.
"Being in Civil War reenactments has made me aware of what our country went through to be what it is today.
"It's not just about the Civil War. It's all wars. Of course, it's good to wave the flag. But, without understanding what the soldiers went through and what it means to wave the flag, all you've got is a cloth on a stick," he says.
"It wasn't just a kid's fascination. I care about the in-depth learning. Because I know the facts of what happened in battle, I'm proud to be an American."
