Brian Pohanka Dies; Civil War Historian, Film Adviser

In 1988, he recruited and instructed actors portraying the soldiers in the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the first black regiment in the Union Army, for the movie "Glory." Because few African Americans are reenactors, Mr. Pohanka recruited Washington area residents through newspaper ads and unemployment offices.

"There were 300,000 blacks in that war. We think their role has been badly neglected, and we hope this picture will encourage more black people to take an interest in the history," he told The Washington Post while the movie was being made.

Mr. Pohanka enlisted two other veteran reenactors to help him teach 1,000 Romanian soldiers, who portrayed the Union and Confederate troops in "Cold Mountain," how to wear their uniforms, carry their weapons and perform their duties.

"We were struck by their lean and hungry look," he told the Dickinson College alumni magazine. "Their physical build is much closer to the way Americans looked back then."

Mr. Pohanka was pleased with how the film turned out, especially the opening scene of the 1864 Battle of the Crater, when the Union Army tunneled explosives under a Confederate fort, then ordered its untrained troops to charge the pit. A massacre ensued.

"I was glad that the battle scene was graphic, violent and gory," he said. "That's what war is. It's not a bunch of people in costume. If it's not as violent and horrible as it really is, it's not being true to reality."

He wrote and edited about a dozen books, including "Mapping the Civil War" (1992), "Distant Thunder: A Photographic Essay on the Civil War" (1988) and "Myles Keough: An Irish Dragoon in the 7th Cavalry" (1991). A regimental history of the 5th New York Infantry, which he worked on for more than a quarter-century, will be published posthumously, his father said.

He even met his wife, a costume historian, through "living history" reenactment activities. They lived in an 1880s-era home near Mount Vernon, once owned by a veteran of the 10th New York Cavalry.

Mr. Pohanka served on the boards of several local preservation associations, and he was named Battlefield Preservationist of the Year in 2004 by the Civil War Preservation Trust and the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust.

Survivors include his wife of seven years, Cricket Pohanka of Alexandria; his father, John Pohanka of Washington; a brother, Geoffrey Pohanka of Vienna; and a sister, Susan Pohanka of Bryn Mawr, Pa.