Civil War Comes Alive for Students at United Irish Cultural Center Event

By Dmitry Kiper

As most kids were sitting inside their classrooms on an unusually hot Nov. 16 morning, some lucky elementary and middle school students participated in a "hands on" living history experience of the American Civil War.

Sponsored by the United Irish Cultural Center (UICC), located on 45th Avenue near Sloat Boulevard, the event, which was a year in the making, focused on Irish participation in the Civil War.

"The Irish had a significant role in the Civil War on both sides," said UICC President Bob Twomey. "Most of the soldiers who fought were recent immigrants."

The Irish Potato Famine of the late 1840s sent hundreds of thousands of Irish to America. Most of them initially came to Boston and New York City, but wherever they went, they met blatant discrimination in housing and employment - signs often said, "No Irish need apply."

In 1851, several Irishmen formed the 69th New York State Militia, and 10 years later it was one of the first brigades to answer President Abraham Lincoln's call to thwart the Confederate rebellion. "Irishmen, unite! Strike now for Ireland and freedom! Fifty active young men needed," read one 1862 recruitment poster for the 69th New York Regiment. It promised one month's pay in advance and a monthly stipend of $13, a good wage at the time.

During the UICC event, several dozen "living historians" were dressed in the artillery, cavalry, infantry, medical and civilian uniforms of the Civil War. And as kids wandered from one historian to another, they picked up pieces of knowledge they could only get by a hands-on experience. Several re-enactors wore the uniform of the 69th regiment. They showed kids how to load a musket while trying to avoid getting shot and sprinkled various facts about the Irish contribution to the war.

"I'd like the kids to be able to see, to hear and to feel what the Civil War was like," said re-enactor Joe Gilbert. "It's something they will remember for many years to come."

Several hundred children from eight schools marveled at the cannons, tents, pistols, telegraphs, giant Confederate and Union flags and a bearded banjo-playing southerner. The kids got to hold actual replicas of cannonballs, bullets, sabers, soaps, wallets, newspapers and even a soldier's sewing kit, then known as "the house wife."

The event did not try to paint an unrealistic picture of war. A re-enactor playing the part of a Union Army doctor, after getting a girl named Alexandra to volunteer as his patient, proceeded to demonstrate the process of removing a bullet from a wounded soldier's arm. He first changed the girl's name to Alex, because, he explained, women were not allowed to serve as soldiers in the army - although some secretly did.

"A surgeon's favorite tool is his finger," he said, wiggling his finger. The kids winced. After explaining how a field doctor would try to remove a bullet using his finger, he moved on to tools like scalpels and knives (some resembling butcher knives), which would be necessary in case of a deeper or more complicated wound. The kids flinched again when the doctor showed a small metal hook used to move nerves out of the way when doing surgery, which was typically supposed to take 10 minutes. Ether was used as a soporific.

"They see the glory of war," said the field doctor. "I try to show them the effects."

After the event drew to a close, a fifth-grade girl concluded, "I don't think we'll be able to see this in a book."