A unit of 12th Regiment U.S. Infantry, Co. A, the military host of the 21st Annual Peterboro Civil War Weekend, assembles on the green.
Visitors at the 21st annual Peterboro Civil War Weekend can walk in the civilian camps and observe domestic fashions, daily duties, and recreational activities.
Historic exhibits and demonstrations at the annual Peterboro Civil War Weekend educate about life in the mid-1800s.
President Lincoln converses with visitors and other re-enactors at the annual Peterboro Civil War Weekend.
A Civil War skirmish takes place at the annual Peterboro Civil War Weekend at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
(Peterboro, NY- April 2013) The 12th Regiment U.S. Infantry, Co. A (reenacting) will host the 21st annual Peterboro Civil War Weekend June 8 and 9. Sponsored by the Smithfield Community Association, the town of Smithfield and private donors, the annual event recognizes the abolition role of Gerrit Smith and Smith’s support of John Brown’s raid at Harpers Ferry.
The 2013 program will feature the Emancipation Proclamation and its connection to Peterboro, the recruitment and service of the United States Colored Troops and the service of local men in the Battle of Gettysburg.
The two-day event opens Saturday, June 8, and Sunday, June 9, at 10 a.m. The event closes at 4 p.m. Sunday with taps. The military and civilian encampment on the green in the hamlet of Peterboro includes period music, entertainment, shopping, demonstrations, hamlet walking tours, programs, exhibits, period fashions, chicken barbeque, pancake breakfast, drill exercises, a Sunday sermon, a daily skirmish at 2 p.m. and a children’s area with games and toys.
The encampment is surrounded by abolition, Civil War and Underground Railroad exterior and interior exhibits and programs at the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark, the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum and the Peterboro Area Museum.
The Gerrit Smith Estate is a site on the National Park Service Network to Freedom (the national Underground Railroad Trail). The Gerrit Smith Estate and the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum are both sites on the Underground Railroad Heritage Trail, a program of the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
The 77th NY Regimental Balladeers will provide concerts at 1 and 3 p.m. Saturday, June 8, as well as a one-act play ‘Dear Friend Amelia’ with music Saturday evening at 7:30 p.m. The 3rd U.S. Colored Troop Infantry Regiment musicians will perform Sunday.
Particular attention to the Civil War sesquicentennial Saturday, June 8, will include ‘Local Soldiers Who Served at Gettysburg,’ as told by (1863) Sheriff F. Bonney enacted by Sue Greenhagen, Morrisville village historian; The Gettysburg Address: Jack Baylis as President Lincoln; United States Colored Troop Institute exhibit from Hartwick College, Oneonta; “The Meaning of ‘Colored’” by Harry Bradshaw Matthews, Hartwick College, Oneonta; ‘The Meaning of the Emancipation Proclamation,’ Jessica Clarke, Camden Central;
Sesquicentennial features Sunday, June 9, include 34-star flag graveside ceremony for African Americans: 3rd U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment, Philadelphia, Pa.; ‘Life as a Colored Soldier:’ 3rd U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment, Philadelphia, Pa.; ‘A Family’s Response to Frederick Douglass’ recruitment of Colored Troops,’ Akwaaba Players, Rochester; ‘Rev. Jermain Wesley Loguen of Syracuse Recruits Black Troops,’ Djed Snead, Rochester; and “Music of the Civil War,” duo 3rd U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment, Philadelphia, Pa.
Admission of $7 for adults, $3 for children 6 to 12 and free under 6 covers event activities (except shopping and food). For more information, visit www.civilwarweekend.sca-peterboro.org, call 315.280.8828 or email mail@sca-peterboro.org.