GAINESVILLE - This past week area middle school students learned what it was like to be 'Gone for a Soldier' in the American Civil War during a special hands-on summer camp at the Northeast Georgia History Center.
Camp Director Beth Feizet, who donned a mid-19th century day dress, said the children went beyond history text books.
"We want them to have a love of history, a curiousity, a hunger to know more than what is in the text books," she said.
The students made made Civil War drums, facsimile musket cartridges using sand instead of gun powder, even soldier's playing cards.
Authentic living historians portraying Confederate and Union soldiers were also there, answering questions and staging drill and camp life demonstrations. One of them was Derek Sargent of the 42nd Georgia Infantry Regiment, a unit that fought in the bloody Battle of Atlanta.
"We're trying to teach them the life and times of the Civil War soldier," Sargent said. "We want them to learn what he went through, his trials and tribulations and what his every day life was like."
Friday
October 18th, 2024
4:52AM
