UK American Civil War Society

[L Verge]

When Surratt House did Civil War encampments back in the 70s and 80s, we also had several British reenactors participate. Some would spend several months in the U.S. during the spring and summer so that they could go from reenactment to reenactment.

The Surratt Society has about six members from the UK, as well as Australia, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Canada. We air mail the newsletter to fifteen overseas members each month. There is also a group in Belgium known as the Confederate Alliance, which has been a member of the Society for over two decades. They publish an annual journal on American Civil War articles.

America's Civil War has the distinction of being considered the first modern war because of the technology, etc. that came of age during that period. That makes it very interesting to military historians around the world. Gen. Tidwell, co-author of Come Retribution, had a strong military and governmental background in covert operations and espionage. He wrote the first ten or so chapters of that book on the growth of the Confederate version of underground warfare after realizing that the French Underground during WWII had adopted many of the tactics that the Confederates had used nearly 100 years before.