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Schools

Civil War Hits Home for Glencoe Second-Graders

The kids' annual field trip to the Glencoe Historical Society features war re-enactor along with lessons of newspapers, radio and TV.

The company man in blue of Battery G of Illinois summoned his young recruits: “Attention! Battery!”

His hooked saber on his side, his musket at the ready, Union soldier Patrick DeGeorge came through Glencoe looking for able-bodied young men and women to charge with taming the Southern insurrection and restoring the Union, once and for all.

“We will put down this seccession, I promise you!” he assured his recruits, mostly eager 8-year-olds sitting Indian-style in the front building of the Glencoe Historical Society.

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He explained how each would get a mucket — a combination mug and bucket, both to fetch water and drink their coffee. Coffee would help them eat their standard military victuals, like hardtack, a rock-hard cracker dipped in the beverage.

“It would soften the bread so you wouldn't break your teeth,” DeGeorge said. “And it would kill the worms that are in the bread, and, depending how long it's been since you've eaten, you may even eat the worms.”

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The Civil War may have began 150 years ago this April, but on Thursday, history was alive and well for the second-graders of Glencoe's South School. DeGeorge, dressed in blue like a soldier of the North, played the fife and the bugle for the children, even if their age will keep them from fighting the Confederacy for a few years.

The re-enactor was part of a double treat of a field trip for the second graders, who were given a crash course on the Glencoe residents who fought in the Civil War in one part of the Historical Society, and then allowed a more hands-on museum experience in the back building, where they could learn about the evolution of media from print to radio and TV.

“We've been talking about Glencoe for the past two weeks, and now they get to see it in real life,” said teacher Jessica Miller. “Later on, they'll remember going on this trip.”

The Glencoe Historical Society has partnered with South School for 10 years now, inviting the second grade class to their local history museum each May as school is about to let out. “Every year there's something different for the kids to see,” said Evey Schweig of the Historical Society.

DeGeorge, an actual veteran of both the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, said he inherited his taste for Civil War re-enactments from his father, who also performs as part of Battery G, based in Woodstock.

“With Illinois being Lincoln's home state, there's a lot of interest around here,” DeGeorge said. The exhibit points out at least one Glencoe Civil War veteran who knew Lincoln, delivering the news of Gen. Tecumseh Sherman's march across Georgia directly to the president.

DeGeorge said the Historical Society allows him to show off his regalia to students in a way that he never could in school. “It works good in an outside venue like this where we can show the weapons,” he said.

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