Frequently Asked Questions

Our performances can be very loud! Civil War combat is very noisy, and battelfields can get rather smoky as well. We recommend bringing some form of hearing protection for you and your family.

The American Civil War Experience follows firearm safety principals as established by the NRA and used on live gun ranges across the country. Combined with safety procedures particular to living history events, continuous training and practice of simulated combat scenarios, and well-trained and vigilant officers, our events have a very high safety rating. Additionally, most events have paramedics on site in case of injury, and the Institute maintains its own first-aid capabilities with the proper supplies and training. For more details, please see our [Firearms Safety Policy](link).

Additionally, as an added protection for our volunteers under the age of 18, we have special [Youth Shield](link) polices in place.

There are plenty of opportunities for those who want to participate but would prefer a non-combat role. For talented individuals who can play the fife, drum, or bugle, we have musician positions available. We also have cook, ambulance corpsman, hospital, and civilian roles available as well. Check out our [Volunteer Portal](link) page for our all of our current roles. If you have something particular in mind that is not listed, [contact us](link) and we will do our best to find a place for you!

We strongly encourage women to participate in the roll of nurses, civilians, or camp cooks and laundresses. These rolls are under-represented in contemporary living history portrayals, and we would love for you to help us tell the stories of the women who fought in their own way in a society still very much dominated by men. While hundreds of women did fight as soldiers, compare to the millions of men who fought, this percentage is rendered miniscule. However, if a female participant would still like to take on a combat roll, we will work together to assist her in making as accurate a portrayal of this special historical occurance as possible.

The minimum age to participate as a volunteer performer in a combat role is 16 years old. Participants 12 and up may participate if they auiditon to be a drummer, fifer, or bugler. All performers under the age of 16 must have a parent or guardian also actively participating alongside them.

Younger children under the age of 12 who are participating with their parents or guardians as a family in a civilian role may be permitted, subject to approval from ACWE or event staff.

More details on age limits can be found in our [Volunteer Portal](link).

All of our events have some form of restroom facilities. While some sites may have modern bathrooms with flush toilets available, others will have several "Porta-Johns" available for use. As for shower facilities, these are much more rare to have available. However, we encourage our participants to stay clean, and we will do our best to have warm water, soap, and towels available so that our troops may have a "sponge bath" if they desire to wash up a bit.

Our firearms are working reproductions of Civil War-era firearms, and are capable of firing bullets. However, we never use or produce live rounds, and only blank ammunition produced by the ACWE is allowed to be . Additionally, our standard practice during force-on-force combat scenarios is to load blank ammunition without the use of the ramrod, thereby removing the possibility of loading any sort of projectile.

Limited live-fire activities may be conducted during select events on an established rifle range, following all NRA recommended safety rules for gun ranges. For such an activity, bullets would be handed out individually, separate from the powder charge, and are carefully controlled by the acting range master.

For most living history events, we sleep in canvas tents. For some events at historic forts, barracks with bunk beds may be available to accommodate our troops. Every volunteer performer is permitted a modern sleeping bag and sleeping pad, in addition to the historic wool blanket(s) they are provided. Some roles may have hsitoric cots or portable beds available to them.

For our volunteer performers, the American Civil War Experience provides all of the historical equipment and clothing that you will need. However, for your health, safety, and basic comfort while participating, we ask that you bring a few modern items with you, which you can find on our Event Preparation page for volunteer performers. Please bring ONLY those items listed.

We eat food that is similar to the fare that the real Civil War soldiers would have ate. All of our ingredients would have been available to the soldiers at one time or another, and no strictly modern food is used. However, we understand that eating a diet of only hardtack and salt pork wasn't fun for the soldiers, and it definitely would not be fun for our performers either! Our camp meals are made to be hearty and tasty, while still using various period ingredients.

Being the quintessential question asked by those learnign how living history performances work, we get asked this a lot. In short, we utilize several methods, depending on the scenario. The simplest system is for officers to inform each performer when it is time to "take a hit". In another medthod, officers will assign a number to each man, and when that man's number is called, he is to "take a hit". Yet another mehtod involves the officers carefully controlling how much ammunition each man is issued for each scenario, and when a man runs out of ammuniton, he is to "take a hit".

Since wounds and death are the result of any armed conflict, and the Civil War was the bloodiest conflict in our nation's history, we are very careful about how we portray this. While it is important for our audiences to understand the human cost of our new birth of freedom, we also have a duty to the real people who gave their lives for their cause. We strive to portray these situations without either over-acting or sanitizing this trauma. At the end of the day, we hope that our visitors and our performers are moved by the steep price that was paid to give our nation a new birth of freedom.

If you just aren't a camping person, but believe in supporting our mission of education through living history, we offer some behind-the-scenes volunteer opportunities that help us keep our program running. From preparing food and ammunition prior to events, maintaining uniforms and equipment, building "props" and "scenery" for future events, or volunteering as logistical staff for our hosted events, there are lots of way you can help us bring history to life. Check out our [Volunteer Portal](link) for our current offerings. If you don't see anything that fits you, [contact us](link) to and let us know what you would like to do!

For events hosted by the American Civil War Experience, pets are not permitted. For events supported by the ACWE, the venue's rules would govern. However, we would strongly recommend against bringing your pets to an event. Our performances can get very load and can be frightening for most pets! Of course, licensed service animals are always welcome.

The American Civil War Experience seeks to host events in or near to our home in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, and occassionally elsewhere in our home region of Texas, Oklahoa, Arkansas, and Louisiana.

The ACWE also supports several events at museums, historic sites, and battlefields throughout our home region and across the country. Check out our [Schedule of Events](link) to see where we are headed next!

Visitors to events are recommended to bring clothing appropriate for the weather, comfortable walking shoes that you won't mind possibly getting dirty, a water bottle, and possibly a folding chair or stool. Don't forget your sunscreen!

The American Civil War Experience is equipped to accurately portray both Union and Confederate soldiers, as well as civilians aligned with either (or neither) side. The exact composition of our portrayal depends on the needs of each event that we host or support.

The American Civil War Experience strives to create an environment suitable for families both at events we host and events that we support. Of course, the subject of our events is the American Civil War, the bloodiest conflict in our nation's history. The realities of this history involve violence, disease, wounds, death, suffering, and the existence of slavery as the central issue. We strive to portray these difficult topics without added dramatics or sanitizing the historical truth. Our hope is for our visitors to be moved by the steep price that was paid to give our nation a new birth of freedom.

That being said, we would give our presentations, in general, a "PG" rating. It's important for parents to provide guidance for their children when discussing this history, and we encourage you to discuss it together both before and after attending an event.

In some isolated cases, telling the full historical truth might require us to move into "PG-13" territory. For example, some of our field hospital presentations involve more intense images. In such a case, the ACWE will provide notice that for such a prensentation, parental discretion is advised.

The American Civil War Experience follows firearm safety principals as established by the NRA and used on live gun ranges across the country. Combined with safety procedures particular to living history events, continuous training and practice of simulated combat scenarios, and well-trained and vigilant officers, our events have a very high safety rating. Additionally, most events have paramedics on site in case of injury, and the Institute maintains its own first-aid capabilities with the proper supplies and training. For more details, please see our [Firearms Safety Policy](link).

Yes. Historical-role volunteers use an account so ACWE can track training status, participant records, rank, unit, and applications over time.

Yes. Parent or guardian accounts can manage multiple participants for family members or minors who need to attend alongside them.

No. Support roles are a lighter-weight path and can start with a direct interest submission instead of a full volunteer account.

Questions about parking, weather, accessibility, pets, and other event-day logistics live in the visitor FAQ.

The cost for visitors at American Civil War Experience hosted events can be found on our Tickets page.

The cost for visitors wishing to attend an ACWE supported event varies and is set by the event host. Check out our Schedule of Events, where we link to the event hosts' webpages on each of our supported event listings.