The first shot of the Civil War was fired 150 years ago today (April 12) at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina and for reenactors it is a day they have been anticipating since 1961, the last big anniversary of the War Between the States. It means they can slide into their blue or gray (mostly blue here in the North) and play war without anyone getting killed.
Michigan is about to embark on a four year commemoration of the Civil War which will recognize the tremendous contribution the state’s men and women provided in preserving the Union and ending slavery. You can follow the commemorative events and exhibits here.
This Saturday April 16 on the grounds of the Michigan Historical Center a Civil War encampment will be set up and reenactors will conduct infantry drills, demonstrate artillery tactics and do firing demonstrations. Also, actors playing Abraham Lincoln and Governor Austin Blair will give speeches. It’s sort of a day in the life of a Union soldier sans minnie balls.
A schedule of the day’s events can be found here.
According to Sandra Clark, director of the Michigan Historical Center, the commemorative events begin on April 12, 2011, when the first of two planned exhibits on Michigan and the Civil War opens. “Plowshares into Swords” begins with Michigan on the eve of war—an agrarian state just beginning to develop its mining and lumbering resources, but a state already steeped in the national debate over slavery. It traces the personal and community transitions that war brought and then uses the state’s amazing Civil War flag collection (including a Custer guidon from Gettysburg) to focus on a state and its citizens settling into war. The exhibit will run to February 5, 2012. The four year commemoration will end with an exhibit on the war’s end and aftermath.
On the state’s official Civil War website there is a calendar of events, flicker, facebook, blogs, and the ability to search all of the Civil War documents held in the Archives of Michigan. For example, type in Lansing in the search box and you’ll find photographs of Lansing area residents who served in the war. Select Civil War manuscripts as the collection to search and you’ll find the Lansing collections. It’s a tremendous resource for citizens especially school-age children.
You can also expect a number of new books on Michigan and the Civil War. One of the first books “Michigan and the Civil War” is by Jack Dempsey of Ann Arbor Michigan and it provides an overview of Michigan’s role in the war. Dempsey’s book underlines the importance of the state’s role in the war without which it may have been lost without Michigan’s involvement. He starts with the dramatic shelling at Sumter where Second Lieutenant Norman Hall of Monroe would rescue the nation’s fallen flag and raise it over the fort in “an act of defiance. Read a review of the book at Dome Magazine.
Dempsey will be on a panel discussion with two other Michigan Civil War writers at the Kerrytown BookFest Sunday September 11 in Ann Arbor Michigan.
