Ohio’s pivotal role in Civil War reinforced by re-enactments

During the Civil War, more than 310,000 Ohioans wore Union blue.

Almost 25,000 of them lost their lives to wounds or disease.

Those statistics from the Ohio History Connection illustrate the crucial role that Ohio played during the war, a role that local history buffs are dedicated to keeping alive for future generations.

For volunteers with the 1st Ohio Statehouse Light Artillery, Battery A, dressing in Union uniforms is an honor during the annual Civil War encampment that the group hosts. They'll bring the 1860-era camp to life again Monday on the west lawn of the Ohio Statehouse.

“Ohio’s sacrifice to preserve the Union during the Civil War was so very great and so very important,” What: Repose of President Abraham Lincoln and Civil War encampment Where: Ohio Statehouse, East Broad and South High streets Contact: www.ohiostatehouse. org Time: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday Admission: free said Joe Patchen, one of about 50 active members of Battery A. “We don’t want it forgotten, and we want it understood.”

Amid tents and covered wagons, re-enactors dressed as Union soldiers, doctors and civilians will perform infantry drills, talk about the medicine and food of the time period and display common camp gear.

Children can play period games and even shoulder a wooden toy gun and participate in marching drills.

The re-enactors also like to make things go "boom."

“Let’s admit it,” Patchen said, “it’s fun to shoot cannons.”

Luckily for him and others, the Statehouse has four of them: two 12-pound cannons and two 6-pound cannons. All are authentic to the era.

Patchen and fellow Battery A members will be setting off one of the antiques at the top of every hour.

“Kids enjoy the cannonfiring drill,” said Patchen, who then added with a laugh, “Or they don’t.”

The living history display is presented in conjunction with another annual event: the repose of President Abraham Lincoln in the rotunda of the Statehouse.

An honor guard will keep watch over a replica of Lincoln's casket, which the public is invited to view.

The Statehouse has hosted the encampment since 1994 and the repose since 1998. The attractions were combined into a single event beginning in 2015, the 100th anniversary of the repose.

The ceremony commemorates when Lincoln lay in state at the Statehouse on April 29, 1865, 15 days after his assassination.

More than 50,000 people paid their respects that day, said Luke Stedke, deputy director for the Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board, which hosts the repose.

It was just one instance of how the Statehouse was the center of much activity during that period, Stedke said.

The site also served as a staging area for troops ready to depart for the battlefield.

“A lot of Civil War soldiers from Ohio, this was their final stop before they went to Union camps or out to the field,” Stedke said. “It’s just a way for us to remember Ohio’s special place in the American Civil War.”