Re-enactments keep Civil War history alive

Re-enactments keep Civil War history alive

On Saturday, July 26, I attended the Cascade Civil War Society re-enactment held at Moore Park in Klamath Falls (my birthplace). Moore Park is situated along Lakeshore Drive near the confluence of Upper Klamath Lake and Link River.

The Cascade Civil War Society's intent is not to glorify war, but to bring about historical remembrance about the worst conflict in regards to loss of human life in our nation's history. Also, to depict and interpret the suffering, sacrifice, people, and culture from an era that was a major tuning point in our nation's history.

Over 620,000 Americans, both Union and Confederacy, died in the Civil War (1861-1865). Here are 10 Civil War facts taken from the Internet history channel, "The Seven Day Scholar," by Dennis and Peter Gaffney.

1. One-third of the soldiers who fought in the Union Army were immigrants, and nearly 1 in 10 were African American.

2. Black Union soldiers refused their salaries for 18 months to protest being paid lower wages than white soldiers.

3. Harriet Tubman led a raid to free slaves during the Civil War.

4. President Abraham Lincoln was shot at and almost killed nearly two years before he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater in Washington D.C. (April 1865).

5. Before William T. Sherman became a Union general, he was demoted for apparent insanity.

6. General Ulysses S. Grant wasn't the bloodiest leader in the Civil War. Robert E. Lee was.

7. Both before and during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln pushed to send freed slaves abroad.

8. Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Virginia estate was confiscated by the union and turned into a cemetery during the war. It became Arlington National Cemetery.

9. Privates weren't cannon fodder during the Civil War, generals were.

10. More men died in the Civil War than any other American conflict, and two thirds of the dead perished from disease, sickness, and infection.

The next scheduled Cascade Civil War Society event is planned for the weekend of Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 13 and 14 on the original site of historic Fort Klamath (Klamath County: Wood River Valley), 70 miles east of Ashland. Learn more about the Cascade Civil War Society at The Klamath Falls Herald and News usually posts these re-enactments for the public.

James Farmer