COMMENTS & CURIOSITIES:

Are you a history buff? I am. Ancient, medieval, world, U.S., Brooklyn, doesn’t matter. Think about it, a lot, love it, crave it, can’t get it enough of it.

I am especially interested in the Civil War, which took place before I was born. If you’re with me on the Civil War thing, this week’s Costa Mesa City Council meeting will be as interesting as running into Stonewall Jackson in line at Baja Fresh and sharing a couple of carnitas tacos with him, which doesn’t happen every day.

The American Civil War Society is asking the city’s permission to use Fairview Park for a weekend encampment and reenactment on May 9 and 10. One hundred or more reenactors, Union and Confederate, will pitch camp, set up equipment, site artillery and reenact battles twice a day, and yes, it will be loud.

More importantly, it will be historically accurate, from the weapons to the buttons on their uniforms, so that people — especially the young variety — can see how that long, violent and dysfunctional chapter in our history looked and felt and sounded.

On May 8, the Newport-Mesa School District will give eighth-grade students extra credit for visiting the encampment and completing a questionnaire. And here is the exceedingly cool part. In between the skirmishes, you can walk through the camps, chat it up with the reenactors and learn about their characters: who they were, where they came from, and what they did to survive from one day to the next.

The project is a joint venture with the March Through History Exposition, which organizes family-oriented, educational historical experiences from ancient Rome to 20th century America. MTHE describes itself as “…the largest time-line living history event west of the Mississippi River.”

Why does it matter which side of the Mississippi things are on, by the way? Something is always the oldest or the biggest east or west of the Mississippi. Was there a committee somewhere that decided that the Mississippi was an important dividing line? Why doesn’t west of Roswell or east of the Catskills matter? I don’t get it.

We’ve been fortunate enough to visit a number of Civil War battlefields: Manassas and Fredericksburg, in Virginia; Gettysburg, in Pennsylvania; and Antietam, in Maryland. Whether you walk the Sunken Road at Fredericksburg or stand on the spot where Gen. Pickett’s disastrous charge was launched at Gettysburg, walking the ground where tens of thousands of Americans were killed in a single day — not by terrorists or plague or national disaster, but by each other — is moving, energizing and saddening all at once.

Don’t believe me? Go stand beneath the tiny hotel balcony in Gettysburg where Lincoln gave his famous address — all two minutes and 10 sentences of it — which proved the most valuable adage for speechmakers everywhere: you cannot be brief and be bad. Lincoln’s address was actually a brief introduction for a legendary speaker of the time, Edward Everett.

It was Everett’s speech that was listed in the program as “The Gettysburg Address,” not Lincoln’s. Lincoln’s remarks, which remain one of the most moving and eloquent speeches ever, were about two minutes long, while Everett’s remarks were more than two hours long. Do you remember a single word of Everett’s interminable speech? Not to worry — neither does anyone else.

Which brings us back to why historical experiences like the Civil War reenactment are so important, since so few people will ever get to visit those sites in person. Think the kids could use a little history help? You are not alone. Here are some essay answers from middle and high school history students in the U.S. and the U.K.:

“Ancient Egypt was inhabited by mummies. They wrote in hydraulics and lived in the Sarah Dessert. The climate of the Sarah is such that the inhabitants have to live elsewhere.”

“The Bible is full of interesting caricatures. In the first book of the Bible, called Guinnessis, Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree. One of their children, Cain, asked, ‘Am I my brother’s son?’”

“Moses led the Hebrew slaves to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread which is bread made without any ingredients.”

“Solomon had three hundred wives and seven hundred porcupines.”

“The Greeks were a highly sculptured people, and without them we wouldn’t have history. They also had myths.”

“Homer was not written by Homer but by another man of that name.”

“Socrates was a famous Greek teacher who went around giving people advice. He died from an overdose of wedlock. After his death, his career suffered a dramatic decline.”

“History calls people Romans because they never stayed in one place for long. Julius Caesar extinguished himself on the battlefields of Gaul. The Ides of March murdered him because they thought he was going to be made king.”

“In medieval times most people were alliterate. The greatest writer of the futile ages was Chaucer, who wrote many poems and verses and also wrote literature.”

“Queen Elizabeth was the ‘Virgin Queen.’ As a queen she was a success. When she exposed herself before her troops they all shouted ‘hurrah.’ ”

Finally, if the gold star goes to anyone but this young scholar, there is no justice:

“It was an age of great inventions and discoveries. Gutenberg invented removable type and the Bible. Another important invention was the circulation of blood. Sir Walter Raleigh is a historical figure because he invented cigarettes and started smoking. Sir Francis Drake circumcised the world with a 100-foot clipper.”

Ouch. Careful with that thing, Frank.

So here you have it. Stonewall Jackson, Bull Run and Fairview Park. It’s up to the Costa Mesa City Council now, but I say two thumbs up on the reenactment. It’s not every day you get a chance to remake history. I gotta go.

PETER BUFFA is a former Costa Mesa mayor. His column runs Sundays. He may be reached at ptrb4@aol.com. PETER BUFFA is a former Costa Mesa mayor. His column runs Sundays. He may be reached at ptrb4@aol.com.