The protection has helped Brewer wait more easily on the Cath report. His check-ups have been good, and he's acclimated quickly to the heat. "After you break that first sweat it takes care of that," he said. "You see a lot of people in Egypt or other desert regions, and they're covered head to toe. There's a reason for that."Every Civil War re-enactor tends to focus on parts of the war he finds most interesting, said William Polachek of Mountain Top. Polachek favors material culture and the life of the soldier."I know every battle out there and how it was fought," he said. "But I am more into what the soldier did in his spare time, on the march and in his campaign. What he ate, where he slept -- and what he wore." Polachek will dress in one of his handmade Union soldier uniforms when he shares his War-related knowledge Saturday at an outdoor program at the Marian Sutherland Kirby Library, 35 Kirby Ave., Mountain Top. A re-enactor for 19 years, Polachek made the uniform and several others after being disappointed by uniform reproductions he bought. While the uniforms looked the part, they weren't anything like the ones soldiers wore. "The dyes were different and they would fade," he said. "It wasn't like the fruit and vegetable dyes they used back then. They weren't the right color." From seeing actual uniforms in museums, Polachek knew the weave of the wool wasn't accurate, either. The stitching was also completely different. The only way to get a highly accurate uniform, he figured, was to make one himself. "I went to museums and copied the original uniforms," he said.
