Danby hosts adventures in history with Civil War event

By Jamie Swinnerton
Tompkins Weekly

 

If you’ve ever wondered what it was like to live as a regular, everyday soldier during the Civil War, the Danby Community Council is ready to put you right into a living history experience. On June 23 and 24 at the Danby Community Church, local residents can find out what it’s like to fire a musket, cook over an open fire, and generally live as a Civil War soldier.

Community council member Danny Wheeler is the event’s principal organizer, as well as a member of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, Sydney Camp 41. Wheeler also works to maintain local Civil War monuments and is involved with local schools to educate kids about the life of a Civil War soldier.

“We did this two years ago in Danby and it went over very well,” Wheeler said. “We decided, between us and the units, doing something like this every year it gets to be an old-hat thing.”

The 2016 event was a popular one but needed some adjustments. Two years ago, the event was held in a field in Danby park that became hard to get to for some local residents. This year, the event will be held on the level ground at the church, making it much easier for everyone interested in attending to participate in fully.

“A company street of tents, campfire smoke, period attire, and the unmistakable thunder of musket and cannon fire, will envelop you in the sights and the sounds of the Civil War, and transport you back 150 years,” is what attendees can expect to find at the event, according to a press release. “The soldiers will be sleeping on straw in their tents and cooking their Civil War fare over campfires. Musket tripods will adorn the fields. The clamor of black powder fired from musket and cannon will mark the hour. Attendees will get a first-hand look at the daily life of the soldiers of the Civil War.”

The time travelers bringing history to life at the event include members of the 148th Company E Volunteer Infantry and the Seventh Cavalry (unmounted), and the 26th North Carolina (Confederate).

“The soldiers are actually doing 1860 impressions,” Wheeler said. “They can learn things about the soldier and what he went through.”
Educating people about what happened to the soldiers, not just the generals, is something Wheeler takes very seriously. As a descendant of a Civil War soldier, this history is his own and he wants to see it preserved and passed on.

“I will be putting on a demonstration of the life and times of a Civil War soldier, which I’ve done all over the county for a lot of years,” Wheeler said. “I don’t talk about generals. I don’t talk about killing, any of that. It’s just the soldier, what he went through, how he ate, those kinds of things, so they get a really good picture of the soldier and what he went through… You can open any Civil War book and you can find ‘The General this’ and ‘The Generals that’ and they’re not the ones that won the war. It was the common soldier.”

Financial help from the Danby Community Council, the United Way, and the Tompkins County Tourism Program, the event is free and open to all ages. The weekend of events kicks off with a pancake breakfast at the Danby Community Church at 8 a.m., then later Wheeler will give his presentation. That afternoon the Finger Lakes Fife and Drum Corps will accompany a procession of the units to the Civil War memorial at the Danby Town Hall for a service of remembrance. Although the event has been in the works for months, just recently a screening of “Civil Warriors,” a locally produced film about two local African American Civil War soldiers, was added to the schedule for 7 p.m. Saturday night at the church. The film’s creators will be on hand for questions and discussion about the film, Wheeler said. On Sunday the encampment chaplain will lead a special service at the community church, and the event will officially end at 1 p.m. that afternoon.

Wheeler said it’s not certain if another event like this will be happening in the coming years. He plans to retire soon as quartermaster of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, a position he has held for about 15 years.