Students see Civil War

By MIKE JAMES
The Independent

ARGILLITE March 21, 2008 08:51 am

— There’s nothing in the Civil War history books about the Battle of Argillite Schoolhouse.
That’s because it just happened Thursday and it was pretty obscure — a lone Federal soldier, a grieving soldier’s widow, and a pack of curious schoolchildren were the only participants.
No ground was gained, militarily speaking, yet the battle was a success in opening young minds to the pivotal point in American history that was the Civil War.
Student teacher Andrew Moore, a Civil War and history buff, brought two veteran re-enactors to Argillite Elementary to spice up the fifth grade’s study of the conflict.
Other grades at the school participated as well.
Moore also brought in a mini-museum of his own authentic artifacts and set them up in the library.
“What better way than to see the primary resources?” Moore said. His interest in collecting grew from his interest in vintage coins and currency, and now he has trays of bullets, fragile glass inkwells, sets of silverware and boxes of dice.
Perhaps most curious is his collection of marbles, multicolored because soldiers made them from the native clay to fill idle hours at campsites throughout far-flung theaters of war.
“This is neat stuff,” said third-grader Dakota Hay. “These were things they used in the old days, and they’re pretty, too.”
“It tells you what they did for fun and how they dressed, said her friend, Mackenzie Polley, also in third grade.
Out in the hallway, re-enactor Adam Childers stood guard, wearing a soldier’s forage cap over his Union blue uniform.
In his hands was an Enfield rifled musket, and draped over his shoulder were canteens and cartridge boxes.
All authentic reproductions of period pieces, the items are his standard accouterments for weekends and vacations, which he spends with other like-minded buffs for whom history is a participatory sport.
“Scratch a re-enactor and find a frustrated historian,” Childers said. He hopes his day at Argillite will instill in children an appreciation for their past.
He’d also like them to get a sense of the hardships and sacrifices made by soldiers and their families. “In the 1860s the country was a rough place,” he said.
Back in the library, re-enactor Rose Branham of Rush demonstrated the travails of womanhood in the mid-19th Century, starting with their wardrobes.
Portraying a soldier’s grieving widow, Branham first displayed the myriad unmentionables (not the ones she was wearing, of course) that a respectable woman was expected to put on every day — stockings, pantalets, chemises, corsets, crinolines and petticoats.
History, especially Civil War history, tends to focus on battles, guns, cannon — and men, Branham said. Children seldom see what women went through. “I want them to see how hard things were, but they persevered. They had a lot of sacrifices and struggles.”
Although the children have read about the period in class, the re-enactors and the artifacts rounds out the experience, said teacher Clare Nameth. “It makes it a little more real to them.”
When the students read further about the war they’re more likely to recognize in their books some of the things they saw Thursday, she said.
MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2652.

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