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Re-enactor chaplain spreads the healing word
Pierce’s goal is to ‘bring the nation in and help it heal.’
By TONY BRITT
tbritt@lakecityreporter.com
OLUSTEE — Going through Sutler’s Row at the Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park nearly everyone speaks to and recognizes the Rev. Dr. Clifford Pierce as he gives a wave back or a “looking good men” greeting.
Pierce, 57, is a re-enactor and founder of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Re-Enactors Company F from Jacksonville. His persona as a re-enactor is that of a Chaplain serving in the 54th Massachusetts Company F.
“I’m the chaplain for about 400 Civil War soldiers around the United States,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for about 21 years. It’s been a lovely hobby, I’ve been meeting a lot of fine people and trying to spread history. The motto of our group is: ‘Bring the nation in and help the nation heal.’”
Though Pierce has been a re-enactor for more than two decades, he said he was initially tricked into becoming a re-enactor.
“I got fooled into the hobby and got hooked,” he said with a sly smile. “It’s been a pleasant ride for me. They can’t run me away, and after 21 years I’m still learning.”
As re-enactors, he and his group make appearances at schools, family reunions, movies, churches, clubs and parades.
“We go any place they want to hear about the black soldier,” Pierce said. “We go as far as Massachusetts and for down as Florida, as far west as Iowa and out of the country.
“We’ve been in Africa talking about the hobby. It’s quite an expensive hobby, but we think it’s worth the time to show people what the black soldier did during the Civil War era.”
He said he believes the black soldier played a major role in the Civil War. He said in 1863 when it looked like the English were going to offer help to the Confederate states, the Federalists, with Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth and other leaders encouraging the president, gave the blacks a try as soldiers.
Pierce, who is black, said blacks represent about 5 percent of all re-enactors and black re-enactors are in demand.
“Just to see us in uniforms is a plus, but to come and ask us questions and understand, even today, will help the country,” he said. “We want to get the word out that the North and South did have a war, but our country needs some major healing. I think it’s my job to go out every place I can and try to help this healing by talking to and being with as many Union and Confederate people today that still might be fighting the war and telling them to just love each other.”
Pierce, 57, is a re-enactor and founder of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Re-Enactors Company F from Jacksonville. His persona as a re-enactor is that of a Chaplain serving in the 54th Massachusetts Company F.
“I’m the chaplain for about 400 Civil War soldiers around the United States,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for about 21 years. It’s been a lovely hobby, I’ve been meeting a lot of fine people and trying to spread history. The motto of our group is: ‘Bring the nation in and help the nation heal.’”
Though Pierce has been a re-enactor for more than two decades, he said he was initially tricked into becoming a re-enactor.
“I got fooled into the hobby and got hooked,” he said with a sly smile. “It’s been a pleasant ride for me. They can’t run me away, and after 21 years I’m still learning.”
As re-enactors, he and his group make appearances at schools, family reunions, movies, churches, clubs and parades.
“We go any place they want to hear about the black soldier,” Pierce said. “We go as far as Massachusetts and for down as Florida, as far west as Iowa and out of the country.
“We’ve been in Africa talking about the hobby. It’s quite an expensive hobby, but we think it’s worth the time to show people what the black soldier did during the Civil War era.”
He said he believes the black soldier played a major role in the Civil War. He said in 1863 when it looked like the English were going to offer help to the Confederate states, the Federalists, with Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth and other leaders encouraging the president, gave the blacks a try as soldiers.
Pierce, who is black, said blacks represent about 5 percent of all re-enactors and black re-enactors are in demand.
“Just to see us in uniforms is a plus, but to come and ask us questions and understand, even today, will help the country,” he said. “We want to get the word out that the North and South did have a war, but our country needs some major healing. I think it’s my job to go out every place I can and try to help this healing by talking to and being with as many Union and Confederate people today that still might be fighting the war and telling them to just love each other.”
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