Posing as a Union infantry sergeant, Mike Peters held up a small paper sack of "gun powder" in one hand yesterday and clutched a replica of a Civil War rifle in the other.
Before any Union soldier could shoot his rifle, he had to tear open the powder bag, pour the powder into the neck of the rifle, plunge it to pack it tight and hoist it onto his shoulder. Only then could he shoot, Peters explained to 40 eighth-graders at St. Charles Borromeo School in Bensalem.
"A good soldier could shoot three rounds per minute," said Peters, who wore a dark blue wool frock and other period-style attire.
Students heard a lot about good soldiers, firing tactics and bloody battles in the effort to stop the Confederate Army when five Civil War re-enactors visited the eighth grade yesterday as the culmination of a social studies unit.
"I like to make it more alive for them. It’s important," said social studies teacher Carol Wieland.
For two hours, the re-enactors shared details of a union soldier’s life.
The rifles infantry soldiers carried were about 11 pounds. The bullet that shot Gen. George Meade in the lungs was roughly an ounce of lead.
A Union soldier’s scrunched hat, called a kepi, could also be used as a basket to hold fruits or plants when foraging in the woods, the re-enactors told the kids.
"I think what struck me was the reality of it. With the demonstrators, it really brought it to life and it really made you think about the horror of everything that went on," said Danielle Lehr, 13. "We have the pictures in the books and everything, but people actually re-enacting it and showing us how heavy they [the guns] were and what they had to carry — I think they did a great job"
Angelo Valecce, 13, said, "It helped me to learn what weapons they used."
Eileen Habich, who has a child in Wieland’s class, invited the re-enactors to visit the kids.
Andy Waskie of Philadelphia played the role of Meade, who led the Union Army in the Battle of Gettysburg. "It was the bloodiest battle of the Civil War — 55,000 casualties, 8,000 of them on the spot," the general said.
Don Danson of Middletown posed as a sergeant major in the Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, 98th Regiment.
Peters of Horsham brought his 7-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, with him. She wore a hat and a blue hoop-skirted dress to show how girls of that era dressed. Elizabeth has attended re-enactments with her dad since she was 2.
Carol Neumann of Philadelphia played Clara Barton, the nurse who founded the American Red Cross. She stressed to the students that many brave Civil War soldiers were about their age.
"I saw a boy who had a ball in his cheek from a musket," Neumann told the kids. "I took a penknife and I cut the ball out of his face. That wasn’t remarkable. What was remarkable was a friend of his who got shot through both his legs crawled over to hold him as I dug the ball out. That was true bravery — true friendship."
Danson, who introduced each re-enactor, said he hoped the students would understand that history went beyond what they learned in their textbooks.
"History is not really taught in great depth in the schools today," he said. "So it is our job to teach what it was all about, what came about and what it did in the end."