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Arts & Entertainment

Civil War Exhibit Enhanced by Re-enactors

In commemoration of the beginning of the Civil War 150 years ago, Jefferson Barracks Park presents an exhibit that gives visitors the feel of what it was like to be a field soldier during the war.

The Super Bowl and snow did not deter avid Civil War buffs, re-enactors and interested community members from attending the grand opening of the latest Jefferson Barracks Park exhibit, “The Civil War in Missouri and the West.”

The full parking lot near the Ordnance Room, the site of the exhibit, and the line of cars waiting to get in were the first indicators that the crowd was going to be large. The room quickly filled with visitors, all anxious to view the collection of artifacts, displays and information assembled for the exhibit.

Civil War re-enactors mingled with the visitors to add authenticity to the occasion. 

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“I’ve been doing this for over 30 years now. I’m here to lend some atmosphere to the event. We are currently recruiting for some younger re-enactors. We’re looking for more soldiers,” said re-enactor Charles Brulle, a member of the Friends of Jefferson Barracks.

Along with Brulle were two young soliders in Sam Stanford and James Egbert, who were in authentic uniforms. “I’ve always been interested in military history, and I’ve been volunteering as a re-enactor for four years. My father is a veteran,” Stanford said. 

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Fellow soldier James Egbert said that he became interested in the Civil War through his Boy Scout troop activities, beginning in the third grade.

The exhibit included Union and Confederate uniforms, rifles, pistols, swords, bugles, a snare drum and field equipment. In a medical displace case, bone saws and knives, splints, crutches, surgical instruments and a vial of opium served as grim reminders of the primitive conditions and painful procedures that the patients had to endure.

“I have three ancestors who fought in the Civil War, all on the Union side. One, a drummer boy, was wounded in Alabama, moved to Memphis for treatment and survived the war,” said Jan Reppert, a nurse and a Civil War nurse re-enactor.

After curator Marc Kollbaum welcomed aproximately 100 visitors and gave some background about the exhibit, he introduced Chris Sutton, a professional living-history storyteller who assumed the persona of Captain Nathaniel Lyon, a Union officer sent to Missouri by President Lincoln to suppress the violence between slavery and anti-slavery proponents. His delivery of the details of the conflict between Kansas and Missouri was both an educational and engaging history lesson. Seats filled rapidly, with many standing for the presentation.

The exhibit is free to all and will run through Nov. 20.

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