The Connecticut Civil War Commemoration Commission and Mystic Seaport present a Civil War Naval Encampment Saturday and Sunday June 1-2, 2013 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Click here for Schedule of Events

Are you ready for a truly one of a kind event?

You won’t find this anywhere else north of the Mason Dixon line!

Step back in time and experience the Navy during the American Civil War. The Civil War Naval Encampment at Mystic Seaport will bring Naval and Marine reenactors from throughout the East Coast.

Enter the Seaport’s village green to take part in a naval and infantry encampment filled with tents, amazing exhibits, and dozens of living history presentations. Explore the naval implements of war and learn from a variety of speakers who will explain the unique circumstances confronted by sailors. Shanty singers will roam the camps, singing ballads of the sea.

Naval historian Chuck Veit, President of the Navy & Marine Living History Association (www.navyandmarine.org) and a member of the U. S. Naval Landing Party (www.usnlp.org), based out of Massachusetts, notes that “the Navy is often forgotten when it comes to Civil War history—despite the critical (if not decisive) role played by the fleet. The Mystic Seaport encampment is one of the nation’s very few living history events devoted to the Navy. Indeed, only the states of Georgia and Virginia have held events focused solely on Naval history.”

Special Events:

• Witness the landing of Union soldiers as they disembark from the historic steamboat Sabino (the oldest operating coal-powered steamboat in the U.S.) Connecticut regiments return from the war on furlough for a rare visit home and are welcomed by civilian re-enactors with banners and flags.  Connecticut’s Governor William A. Buckingham, President Abraham Lincoln, and Connecticut-born Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles will greet the men with a rousing series of patriotic speeches.  Will you be there waving a flag?
• Explore a unique replica of the CSS Hunley, (brought all the way from South Carolina) – a Confederate submarine, the Hunley carried out the first successful submarine attack on an enemy vessel. In 2000, her wreck was discovered in the sands of Charleston Harbor, SC.  Archaeologists raised the vessel and discovered a remarkable Connecticut connection, a set of dog tags belonging to a Connecticut infantry soldier on one of the dead Hunley seamen.  Connecticut State archaeologist Dr. Nicholas Bellantoni determined that the soldier had died previously in a battle and somehow the dog tags found their way into the pocket of the Confederate sailor.  Dr. Bellantoni will be present during the weekend to discuss his involvement in the affair. 
  
• Especially for kids – The camp of the sailor and soldier.  Learn how to march and drill, wield a wooden sword, and sing a sea shanty.  Perfect knot tying skills and see if you can survive on sea rations. 
• Explore what may be the only surviving blockade runner left in America.  The coasting schooner Australia (an exhibit at Mystic Seaport) sailed the southern waters in and attempt to escape the vast Union blockade that extended along the eastern seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico.  Walk through the vessel’s hull and imagine the dangers of challenging the Union Navy’s supremacy.
• Experience the thunder of the cannons’ roar as sailors and soldiers demonstrate the intricacies of firing these iron beasts of war.
• Join us for a Sunday morning memorial to those men who lost their lives at sea.

The best of historic talks:

• Chuck Veit, U.S. Naval Landing Party, “How the Navy Won the War”
• Geoff McLean, U.S. Naval Landing Party, “African Americans in the Navy”
• Dr. Richard Zuczek, U.S. Coast Guard Academy, “Naval Ironclads: Showdown between the Monitor and Merrimack”
  
• Dr. Glenn Gordinier, Mystic Seaport, “Union Naval Strategy”
  
• Bill Peterson, historian, “Mystic Built”: Ships and Shipyards of the Mystic River
• Dr. Nick Bellantoni, Connecticut State Archaeologist, “The Confederate Submarine CSS Hunley”
  
• Dr. Matthew Warshauer, Central Connecticut State University, “Connecticut’s Struggles During the Civil War”
  

Click here for a full schedule of events and times

For more information visit: http://www.mysticseaport.org
www.ctvisit.com

For more information, please click here.

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