My country has had a civil war, invasions by the french, by the spanish, more recently a revolution that threw a fascist government, followed by a very colourful period of internal squirmishes between anti-regime forces, but we settled those events and that was that: off to the history books.
What motivates so many people to re-enact battles from the American Civil War?
It sounds cruel. Re-enacting a war where so many died gruesome deaths.
I think the events op mentioned probably happened in the last couple hundred years too. It’s more that the U.S. has been more stable over the past 2 centuries compared to most other countries. There’s only been 3 mass wars in defense of the country, the revolution, the civil war and WWII. Compare that to say France which has had 3.5 revolutions and 3 giant continent spanning wars in that same time period.