One large reason why the article is best burned:

It will lessen the amount of music at these gatherings, and one of the things about that time was more people sang and played and recited, so what's accurate or beneficial about that?

The whole thing could have been replaced by a warning to request prospective players to please restrict the playlist to anything known in existence prior to 1860, (and if the author is such a fine scholar, he should replace his critique with a long list of songs known to be okay, along with a list of tapes and and books musicians could use for drawing up a Civil War repertoire)

Here's another way to make events authentic: each participant should sign an affidavit proving that they arrived on site via a 10 day walking or horseback journey, not in that pickup truck or SUV. Then they won't feel so stupid asking guitarists to go find catgut strings.