It turns out that over-the-shoulder E-flat cornets, bloomer-wearing Zouaves and the San Francisco Mint do have something in common:

Each played an important role in the American Civil War.

Anyone who already knew that has probably spent time with Civil War re-enacters like those who performed infantry drills and raised the American flag on Saturday within the brick confines of Fort Point National Historic Site in San Francisco's Presidio.

The sky was clear, the air chilly and the visitors thrilled to take a free walk back in time to an era of hoopskirts and new-fangled rifled muskets that, for the first time, could shoot lead bullets so straight and fast they'd shatter bones like glass. It was all courtesy of the nonprofit 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry, Company G, of the American Civil War Association in Northern California, which sponsors similar living history events across the state.

In the early 1860s, as the Civil War raged across southern battlefields, "the role of Fort Point was to protect San Francisco," said Mace Gjerman, a member of the 20th Maine, who looked dapper in a blue woolen frock coat with the three crimson stripes and one star on his arm denoting his rank as an ordnance sergeant.

High stakes

The closest fighting was about 3,000 miles away. But it turns out the city was bankrolling almost the entire war with the gold and silver stored in the city's mint.

"The Union Army - the whole government - would have gone bankrupt if the supply had been lost," said Gjerman, a San Leandro resident and great-great grandson of four men who fought for the North in the Civil War.

Just one Confederate ship, the Shenandoah, even came close to the San Francisco Bay in an attempt to capture the mint, Gjerman said. Still, the stakes were high.

Gjerman wore a medal of the "Sons of Union Veterans," draped in a black ribbon to honor John Dinsmoor, who died in November at age 85. Dinsmoor, the son of Civil War Pvt. Samuel Dinsmoor, had been among a handful of children Civil War veterans still living.

'Lifts their spirits'

On Saturday, the quiet of the chilly morning in the Fort Point courtyard was suddenly broken by the sound of the garrison's brass band playing "Battle Cry of Freedom," whose chorus, had anyone been singing it, would have sounded like this: The Union forever! Hurrah, boys, hurrah! / Down with the traitors, up with the stars;/ While we rally round the flag, boys, rally once again, / Shouting the battle cry of freedom!

As the cornets sounded, the infantry entered - about a dozen men (and a few well-disguised women) marching in crisp formation and following the orders of their sergeant.

In the war, the troops would have continued for miles until reaching the front lines. Leading the way would have been musicians like Private Eric Totman (of Stockton in real life), who plays the over-the-shoulder E-flat cornet.

The bell of the instrument curls back over the player's left shoulder. It has to, Totman explained, so that the line of soldiers marching behind can hear it.

"It motivates them and lifts their spirits," Totman said.

Among those marching might have been Don Saia, who looked nothing like what you'd picture a Civil War soldier to be. He wore red bloomers, for one thing. And creamy white tights.

He was a Zouave, a specialty unit formed in Manhattan by an independent-minded Frenchman named Abram Duryee, who wanted his regiment to look like they'd come from the Crimean war.

"The Zouaves were fiercer in battle than other soldiers," said Saia, who lives in Vallejo.

Although Saia is not descended from a Zouave, he said it was important to honor them and all Union soldiers.

"The slavery issue is a big part of it," Saia said. "If the war hadn't happened, we'd have had a divided country. Slaves would still have been subjugated in the south."
