Civil War Class Learns How to March

Several students from The HIST 4331 Civil War and Reconstruction class, team taught by Dr. Waters and Dr. Crawford, traveled to the University's Wetland Preserve south of Alger and spent a few hours learning the skills that soldiers during the American Civil War (1861-1865) had to know. Under the tutelage of Brendan Kinder and his fellow reenactors, the students first learned how to march, then the manual of arms.

The weather cooperated and the students enjoyed learning what the soldiers they are learning about must have gone through. Some of the more amusing, but likely historically accurate moments came when one of the officers gave the command for the students to turn right, then turned left. In another instance, when practicing bayonet thrusts, one student found her bayonet not well attached, and the device flew off the rifle barrel.

This was not only fun, but valuable in giving the students a taste of what type of training soldiers went through. The difficulty they had in mastering close-order drill makes the initial debacle at the First Battle of Bull Run more understandable as poorly trained union soldiers broke in the confusion of their first battle.

Thank you very much to Brendan and your comrades in arms!