Highlights Archives
A Civil War Spectacle Coming to Wade House
The normally placid pastures and meadows of Wade House historic site in Greenbush will become massive Union and Confederate encampments during the site's 16th annual Civil War Weekend Saturday and Sunday, September 23-24. Visitors will observe the daily routine of Civil War camp life, the drilling and marching that kept the troops in battle-ready condition, and the sound and fury of a full-scale battle each afternoon of the event. Each autumn the 1860s stagecoach inn, which served as a Union Army recruiting center during the Civil War, becomes the destination for hundreds of Civil War re-enactors — and thousands of spectators — who come to relive the day-to-day lives of Civil War soldiers and civilian sutlers, or merchants who shadowed troop movements to hawk their wares. As visitors soon discover, those experiences run the gamut from the humdrum to the horrific.
In keeping with the theme of this year's Civil War Weekend, "Music Soothes the War-Weary Soul," both days of the event will include several performances of Civil War-era music ranging from a regimental band concert on Sunday to solo performances both days. Each day visitors can expect to stroll the encampments, meeting and mingling with the troops, medical personnel and musicians plus browsing the sutlers' shops for reproduction Civil War-era goods. A special children's area near the entrance to the camps will offer youngsters a chance to play such period games as stilts, hoop-and-stick races, and graces, to make sewing kits for Civil War soldiers, and to set up dog tents and drill like the men in blue and gray.
A new feature of the Civil War Weekend this year will be a demonstration game of 1860s-style Base Ball (when the game was spelled as two words) pitting the Greenbush Cream Citys against the 5th Wisconsin Infantry. The games begin each day at 11 a.m.
To better plan your Civil War Weekend, visit our detailed daily schedule of activities for Saturday, September 23, and Sunday, September 24.
:: Posted September 18, 2006
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