{"id":7666,"date":"2011-05-10T02:14:50","date_gmt":"2011-05-10T07:14:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/?p=7666"},"modified":"2011-05-11T05:39:41","modified_gmt":"2011-05-11T10:39:41","slug":"local-students-get-personal-perspective-on-civil-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2011\/05\/10\/local-students-get-personal-perspective-on-civil-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Students learn from Civil War personages"},"content":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Local re-enactor Chuck Eberle gets into his impersonation of famous Civil War General Robert E. Lee. (photos by Dave Mosier\/Van Wert independent)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Van Wert and Lincolnview fifth-graders had the chance to get a personal view of what life was like during the Civil War — including \u201cmeeting\u201d some of the most famous personalities of the period — during \u201cHistory Day\u201d an event held Monday at the S.F. Goedde Building.<\/p>\n

The program, in its second year, is even more relevant in 2011 because it marks the start of a five-year celebration of the 150th anniversary of the war that cost tens of thousands of lives and had a lasting effect on this country (click here<\/a><\/strong> for more photos).<\/p>\n

Historical figures appearing at the school through the talents of several re-enactors were the only two American presidents to serve at the same time: U.S. President Abraham Lincoln (George Buss) and Jefferson Davis (Goedde teacher David Walker), president of the Confederate States of America; as well as famous Confederate General Robert E. Lee (local resident Chuck Eberle, who is a descendant of Lee).<\/p>\n

The event also featured re-enactors portraying a Union naval officer (Bob Dispenza), a Union soldier (Russ Gilliam), a Union transportation officer (Henry Vincent), two women who described the fashions of the mid-1800s (Kay Gnagey and Marta Vincent), and a woman (Sue Pfeiffer) who showed students how to do the dances popular around the Civil War.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Abraham Lincoln (George Buss) talks about his life during History Day 2011.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The three historical figures, though extensive research by those who re-enacted them, talked about their lives and families and also discussed the attitudes of the person they were portraying and how they felt about a number of issues that were part of the Civil War era.<\/p>\n

The naval officer described the weapons used by the Union Navy during the Civil War and also described many of the practices instituted on naval vessels during the period.<\/p>\n

The transportation officer discussed how troops and supplies were moved from place to place during the war, and the equipment used at the time, while the Union soldier described how Civil War soldiers were dress and equipped, and the hardships they often had to endure.<\/p>\n

Gnagey described the types of clothing worn during the Civil War era and showed examples of clothes and other items that were part of home life in the mid-1800s.<\/p>\n

Pfeiffer went even further, teaching children how to perform dances popular at the time of the Civil War.<\/p>\n

The talks were informative and included many fascinating bits of information, including one from Buss on the fact that gentlemen of the Civil War period often stored their important papers in their top hats to keep them dry when it was raining.<\/p>\n

Even more interesting was the insight provided by Walker, Buss and Eberle into the personalities of three of the most important and famous people of the Civil War era.<\/p>\n

The event was divided into eight half-hour stations, and students went from station to station to learn from all of the various presenters. There was also recess for the fifth-graders and a lunch that was decidedly not Civil War accurate: pizza.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor Van Wert and Lincolnview fifth-graders had the chance to get a personal view of what life was like during the Civil War — including \u201cmeeting\u201d some of the most famous personalities of the period — during \u201cHistory Day\u201d an event held Monday at the S.F. Goedde Building. The program, in its second […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 20:24:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7666\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}