Courtesy Photo | The members of Cooper's Battery, Sgt. Jamie Gambill, Spc. Matthew Burnett, Jim Yeager,...... read more read more
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FORT LEE, Va. - Johnny Clem ran away to join the Union Army when he was about 11 years of age.
Sgt. Joshua Green was about 11 years of age when he was bitten by the military reenactment bug.
Despite the fact Green was born more than a century after the notable Civil War figure, Clem was the impetus for Green’s insatiable thirst to learn about the past.
It happened while he was a 5th grade student at Johnny Clem Elementary School in Newark, Ohio, and won an essay contest that earned him the right to play Clem during an event honoring the fabled “Drummer Boy of Chickamauga.” Both Clem and Green are from Newark.
“It was really neat to dress up and walk around like that all day because everyone was watching you,” said the Fort Lee Medical Department Activity Soldier, noting several Civil War reenactors were on hand for the elementary school event. “It wasn’t a fame thing or anything like that; they wanted to talk to you, they wanted their picture taken with you.”
That sense for sharing his history-loving passion with others continued into his adult years and recently moved Green to take on duties as a volunteer reenactor with the Petersburg National Battlefield Park as a cannon crew member.
“I’ve always had an interest in wanting to do reacting and to learn more,” said Green, the son of an active Air National Guardsman and Civil War enthusiast. “It makes history more real.”
The opportunity to “learn more” came when he met Randolph H. Watkins, a PNBP park ranger and guide, at another reenactment event, and the two spoke at length.
“I asked him if he would be interested in serving on a Union gun detachment,” said Watkins, “and he said he not only was interested, but knew a number of other Soldiers assigned to Kenner who would like to join.”
With passion exuding from his persona, Green went about recruiting other members and eventually got six others to commit themselves to performing. Taking on the role as Cooper’s Battery, the group has shown a high degree of earnestness, said Watkins.
“Sgt. Green isn’t just interested in ‘burning powder,’ said Watkins. “He and other members are very much interested in learning about Civil War artillery drill, tactics, equipment, etc. and especially in the history and people who served in Cooper’s Battery.”
Now, along with a few civilian members, the Union artillery crew has conducted a few events and has a full schedule for the rest of the year,” said Watkins.
Cooper’s Battery, said Green, was a Pennsylvania unit that “fought clear through the war from the beginning, all the way to Petersburg.” Having done research on the unit, Green said its history is illustrious, and he is proud to share it. “It is what I was looking for.”
Since the crew was assembled last spring, it has performed once-a-month firing demonstrations at PNBP and has participated in non-battle events such as at Peebles’ Farm in Dinwiddie.
At Peebles’ Farm, the group’s first official event, Green said he literally felt the weight of history on his shoulders.
“It was very somber,” he said of his two-night campout. “I thought about my own history because there is a good possibility I had a relative on that (battle) line from an Ohio regiment … so just to think that he was at that battle, right where I was, not even a 100 yards from where I was sleeping.”
Being right where history occurred, said Green, stirs the emotions and forces one to delve into the psyche of fighting men – their motivations, fears and hopes. “You think about how many people died there and what they died for.”
According to official records, there were more than 3,800 casualties during the three-day, 1864 battle in Dinwiddie County that resulted in a Union victory. His presence there generated images of what it was like in the midst of battle.
“I was very honored to be there,” said Green pensively, “to see everything, to see what they saw.”
Green said he doesn’t take the reenactments for granted and goes to great length to do everything in period fashion. That includes wearing the replica uniforms to standard and keeping modern conveniences like cellphones out of view when performing. He even sported a period pipe at Peebles’ and took authenticity down to the cuisine.
“I used a clay pipe, and we cooked over the fire,” he said. “I have a period recipe book so we were cooking what they ate; they ate hard tack, and I made some hard tack for it.”
Hard tack – a type of cracker carried by many soldiers – is the Meals, Ready-to-Eat of the Civil War era.
Being true to history has its merits, said Green. “I’m not only trying to teach the people who visit to see us shoot, but I’m also trying to teach the people in the group who don’t know much about the war.”
Green is still open to learning as well. Although he relishes sharing his knowledge, there are always opportunities for exposure to another history lesson.
“When people ask me things, it’s very gratifying that I’m telling them something they may not know,” he said, “but there are always those who know more than you and they teach you something, so it’s kind of a two-way street.”
Green’s future plans are to learn more about the Civil War through reenactments and even expanding his roles. They include joining an infantry regiment and starting a medical unit “to teach people about Civil War medicine” he said.
As a planned side activity, he also wants to explore participation in reenactment battles that take place outside PNBP.
“We’ve got a lot of stuff planned, and it’s just a lot of fun,” said Green.
Just as much fun as playing the role of Johnny Clem.
| Date Taken: | 04.01.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 04.01.2015 17:12 |
| Story ID: | 158854 |
| Location: | VA, US |
| Web Views: | 52 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, History's guardians -- group resurrects Civil War artillery unit, by Terrance Bell, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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