The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Garfield site to host Civil War encampment
The National Park Service has announced the return of the annual Civil War encampment weekend at James A. Garfield National Historic Site.
It will take place July 2022 and will be the event’s ninth consecutive year, according to a news release.
The festivities begin at 7 p.m., July 20, when the Northeast Ohio Civil War Round Table holds its annual speaker symposium in the Visitor Center auditorium.
The symposium will feature Matt Atkinson, park ranger at Gettysburg National Military Park, discussing the treatment of the wounded at the battle of Gettysburg; and Daniel J. Vermilya, national park ranger and author, presenting “On the McClellan Go-Round: George McClellan and the Maryland Campaign.” The symposium is free of charge and open to the public.
The encampment runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on July 21 and 22.
As in previous years, it will feature Union and Confederate reenactors and occasional demonstrations of loading and firing muskets as well as marching and drills. There will be several musicians performing Civil War-era music and re-enactors will be portraying popular figures including General Ulysses S. Grant, President Abraham Lincoln, and several of Lincoln’s generals.
A “Buffalo Soldier” will be on site to speak with the public about African Americans who fought for the Union. A rotating schedule of programs on a variety of Civil War topics will occur in the visitor center and on the grounds.
The Underground Railroad is the theme of this year’s encampment, due to the Garfield National Historic Site’s recent designation as a member of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, the release stated. Accordingly, the encampment will also feature first-person presentations by “Sojourner Truth” and “Frederick Douglass.”
On July 21, the public is invited indoors 6 p.m. at Faith Lutheran Church, 8125 Mentor Ave., next door to the Garfield site, to hear selections from the Underground Railroad opera “Highway to Canaan.” This opera was written by renowned musician/vocalist/librettist Dr. J LanYe’, who will be on hand that evening to play piano, sing, and narrate. The opera follows a group of escaped slaves as they flee slavery in the South and travel north on the Underground Railroad toward Canada.
This performance is free of charge.
Families can participate in the “Civil War Journey” program July 21-22 in which they receive the identity of a real soldier or civilian from Ohio involved in the war effort and gather information to determine what happened to that individual at war’s end.
Activities for kids, including the popular “mini-militia,” will be available both days. The Garfield home will be open to the public both days as well.
A full schedule of events may be found at www.nps. gov/jaga.
Eastern National, the cooperating association that runs the site’s bookstore, has provided a grant for this event for the second year in a row, according to the release. Additional funding has been provided by the James A. Garfield Alliance of the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
All encampment activities throughout the weekend are free of charge. Parking is available at the Garfield National Historic Site and next door at Faith Lutheran Church. Overflow parking is located at Mentor Office Park, 8224 Mentor Ave. There will be a free shuttle between the overflow lot and the Garfield site from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days.
The Garfield National Historic Site is located at 8095 Mentor Ave. in Mentor.