CIVIL WAR WEEKEND
Peterboro, New York
July 14 & 15, 2014
Every summer for the past twenty-two years the Smithfield Community Association, a non-profit organization located in the small hamlet of Peterboro, New York, has hosted a Civil War Weekend. This event draws a multitude of people who share an interest in the horrific events that shook the United States to its very core in the 1850s and shaped it into the country it is today.
Among the activities offered during this popular event, are camp life demonstrations that provide guests with the opportunity to experience 1800 military life through music, drama, storytelling, and period craft demonstrations.
Each afternoon, visitors are treated to smoke-filled reenactments presented by the 12th United States Infanty.
Peterboro is also home to the National Abolition Hall of Fame
and Museum and the Gerrit Smith Estate. Mr. Smith was an avid abolitionist and social reformer who aided in the escape of numerous slaves along the Underground Railroad. His lifelong home is now a National Historic Landmark as well as being a National Park Service Network to Freedom Underground Railroad site, a Heritage NY Underground Railroad site, and also a Madison County NY Freedom Trail site.
Among the activities offered during this popular event, are camp life demonstrations that provide guests with the opportunity to experience 1800 military life through music, drama, storytelling, and period craft demonstrations.
Each afternoon, visitors are treated to smoke-filled reenactments presented by the 12th United States Infanty.
Peterboro is also home to the National Abolition Hall of Fame
and Museum and the Gerrit Smith Estate. Mr. Smith was an avid abolitionist and social reformer who aided in the escape of numerous slaves along the Underground Railroad. His lifelong home is now a National Historic Landmark as well as being a National Park Service Network to Freedom Underground Railroad site, a Heritage NY Underground Railroad site, and also a Madison County NY Freedom Trail site.
It was an honor to be invited to share the floor this year with Alice Keesey Mecoy, the great, great, great granddaughter of John Brown (pictured on right) and two local descendents of Harriet Tubman: Joyce Stokes Jones and Michele Jones Galvin.
I spoke on the topic of the relevance of
historical fiction at historical events and was rewarded by an appreciative audience.
My gratitude goes to the coordinators of the event who have invited me back to speak again next summer.
I spoke on the topic of the relevance of
historical fiction at historical events and was rewarded by an appreciative audience.
My gratitude goes to the coordinators of the event who have invited me back to speak again next summer.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
June 13, 2015 @ 3:00 p.m.
I will be presenting "Audacious!" a discussion on Robert E. Lee's
bold invasion of Maryland in September 1862.
Despite a significant imbalance in the number of troops between his Army of Northern Virginia and George McClellan's Union Army of the Potomac and the misplacement of Lee's Special Order 191, he gambled that the incursion would be worth the risk . . . but was it?
This discussion will take place in the barn beside the Gerrit Smith Estate (Welcome Center) immediately following a battle reenactment on the green.
I will be presenting "Audacious!" a discussion on Robert E. Lee's
bold invasion of Maryland in September 1862.
Despite a significant imbalance in the number of troops between his Army of Northern Virginia and George McClellan's Union Army of the Potomac and the misplacement of Lee's Special Order 191, he gambled that the incursion would be worth the risk . . . but was it?
This discussion will take place in the barn beside the Gerrit Smith Estate (Welcome Center) immediately following a battle reenactment on the green.
Summer 2015 - Two book presentations are pending in Fairmount and Camillus, New York. Dates and times TBA.
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