The Civil War Living History Weekend will not be held in 2007 or thereafter until further notice.
Civil War Living History Weekend – August 12-13, 2006 - (Seventh Annual Event)
Event Flyer
Friday - August 11
1:00 - 8:00 Registration at Washington Meeting House
Camp Set-Up
Saturday - August 12
8:00 - 10:00 Registration at Meeting House
8:00 - 9:00 Reenactors Breakfast
10:00 Officers call and Camps open to the public
10:30 Recruiting Stations Open
11:00 "Civil War For Kids"
12:00 Artillery Demonstration at Federal Hill
1:00 General Albert Sidney Johnston at Johnston House Museum
1:30 Harriet Beecher Stowe speaks at HBS Museum
2:00 "Ladies Tea" - Lanette Parnell - on Court House Lawn
"Mourning Customs" - Lanette Parnell, Speaker - On Court House Lawn
2:30 - 4:00 Roundtable discussion with General Robert E. Lee, President Jefferson Davis
and President Abraham Lincoln in Meeting House
4:00 Battle - Troops Form in Town and Commence at Federal Hill
5:00 "Blue & Gray Brass Band" Perform in Center of Village
7:30 - 9:30 "Gala Ball" in Town Square - with "Blue & Gray Brass Band"
Sunday - August 13
8:00 - 9:00 Reenactors Breakfast
10:00 Officers Call at Meeting House
10:00 Camps open to the public
11:00 Church Service on Johnston House Museum lawn - Russell Dixon
12:00 Harriet Beecher Stowe speaks on Court House lawn and throughout the village
at various times
12:30 "Nineteenth Century Makeup" - Paula White
1:00 General Nelson speaks at Meeting House
1:30 "Civil War For Kids"
1:45 Review of Troops
2:00 Battle - Troops Form in Town and March to Federal Hill
4:00 Winners of raffle to be announced at Log Visitor's Center
Throughout the day, both Saturday and Sunday: On-going Scenarios in and around the town such as:
Duels
Mail Call
Pay Call
Village Folk Dramas
Guest Speakers will appear in various places on the Village Streets.
Civil War Displays at Harriet Beecher Stowe Museum
This event is hosted by the Second Regiment Kentucky Infantry C.S.A. and sponsored by Old Washington,
Inc. The City of Maysville and Old Washington, Inc. are not responsible for accidents or injury.
Please stop by the Log Visitor's Center and shop in the numerous antique, craft and specialty shops on Old Main Street.
Raffle For:
Battle of Shiloh Civil War Throw
Civil War Book
Children's Civil War Book and Miniature Soldiers
Tickets: $1.00 each or 6 for $5.00
May be purchased at the Washington Visitors Center
By: Phyllis Helphenstine, Publicity Chairman,
Civil War Living History Weekend in 18th Village
Picture a 1700's village, virtually untouched by time and you have the setting for the "Civil War Living History Weekend" in Washington, (now part of Maysville), KY. This first annual event took place on August 4th, 5th, and 6th 2000. This celebration is in honor of Confederate General Albert Sidney who was born and raised in Washington. His home place was opened to the public on tours as the first museum in Mason County.
The event was hosted by the Kentucky Second Regiment and sponsored by Old Washington, Inc. Registration took place at the 1790 Log Visitor's Center and camps set up throughout the day Friday; the 4th with Sutler's tents start coming in Thursday. A skit with a chance encounter on the flagstone street between Gen. Lee and a Sergeant Major of the Union Army took place at 7:00 p.m. A live Civil War Band provided music. At 8:00 p.m. General Robert E. Lee rode up to the Washington Meeting House on a gray mare and surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant.
Learn firsthand as more than 100 living history interpreters with authentic clothing and equipment; compete with horses, tents, and campfires. Activities include musket and artillery firing, infantry and cavalry maneuvers, Mail call, Pay call, a Court-Martial and Execution for desertion, and card playing. Visitors also learn about life on the home front with demonstrations of period handcrafts, such as quilting, apple butter making, soap making, candle-dipping, blacksmithing and more.
Saturday, August 5th began with Reveille at 6:00 a.m. with camps opening to the public at 9:00 a.m. The Recruiting Station was on the front porch of PhyllisÂ’ Antique Lamp Shop, with the Medical Tent, apple-butter making and more on the lawn of the Albert Sidney Johnston Museum. Inside this lovely home there was quilting demonstrations going on as visitors toured. Four full-size cannons were part of the Artillery Demonstrations at Federal Hill, along with a Scrimmage on the Battlefield. Portrayals of General Albert Sidney Johnston, General Braxton Bragg, President Jefferson Davis with his wife, and President Lincoln spread throughout both days. General John Hunt Morgan's Confederate Raiders and the First Ohio Cavalry participated. Paw-Paw's Forge, a blacksmith from Pennsylvania was set up at the Harriett Beecher Stowe Museum lawn, with the Kentucky Second Regiment camp on their backfield. Bill Boggs had his Civil War Display inside the museum. Several of the village shops offer authentic and replica Civil War items and are open all year. Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts had campsites and earned their History Badges. Soapbox preaching on the streets, Civil War Band, a 14-year old Civil War Prodigy taking questions were also be included in the day's activities. At 2:00 p.m. the Ladies' Tea with guest speaker, Paula White, was held on the old Court House Lawn. The Civil War Era Gala Ball began at 7:00 p.m. in the Washington Meeting House in the center of the village. A Candlelight Walk Through the Soldiers Camp after Dusk for school groups and the general public was much enjoyed.
On Sunday, August 5th, camps again opened to the public at 9:00 a.m. Rev. June Fields held a church service from the porch of the Albert Sidney Johnston Museum for the soldiers and the public who gathered on old type church benches and chairs on the lawn. There was a Ladies' Costume Fashion Show which everyone was invited to enter. Artillery demonstrations, 1860's Medical demonstrations, Scrimmage on Battlefield, Grand Review of Troops at the Battlefield, Civil War Era Band, and speakers were all part of the day's activities. Raffle tickets were sold throughout the weekend for an Enfield 58 caliber 3-band longrifle and a Green & White "Tree of Life" quilt which was on display at the Log Visitor's Center until the drawing at 4:00 p.m. Sunday on the Meeting House steps.
Blacksmithing, In Old Washington at 1st Civil War Weekend
Sitting in the shade beside the Harriett Beecher Stowe Museum in Old Washington this weekend at the "Civil War Living History Weekend" will be Jim Wilson with "Paw Paw's Forge". Visitors may close their eyes and allow their minds to drift back in time, carried by the sounds of the blacksmith's ring. In the 1700's the blacksmith was a leader in the community, along with the lawmakers and the large landowners. Jim first started blacksmithing with his grandfather and great-grandfather when only 5 years old. That summer he was allowed to make the nails being used to put siding on a barn.
The ringing of his hammer on an anvil will sound throughout the village as the blacksmith takes steel rods heated to 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit and forges them into hooks and other items. (The heart of the fire in the coal forge will get up to 3,000 degrees, Fahrenheit.") Visitors may watch Paw Paw Wilson shape and weld such objects as nails, hooks, candleholders, hinges, latches, andirons and other household tools and utensils in an open-air workshop. His wife, Sheri, who helps her husband operate the bellows that heats his coal forge says, "if it's made out of steel, he can make it."
Mr. Wilson wears Comanche-style lace-up trail moccasins. A blacksmith would have traded for these with a local Indian woman who in turn would have bartered for them from Indians from the Western plains. The blacksmith also wears a cotton work shirt and breeches with bone buttons made from deer antlers.