Oct 6, 2014 3 min read

CARMICHAELS – Each year, sixth-grade students at Carmichaels Area Elementary Center learn a piece of U.S. history by becoming fully immersed in it. These students don’t just read about the Civil War in textbooks and regurgitate information in essays and tests; they witness a re-enactment and help set up a camp, complete with tent building and learning the proper way to start and extinguish a fire.

In past years, the students selected a famous person from the Civil War era whose persona they would adopt, such as Civil War photographer Matthew Brady. This year, the kids will have more creative freedom as they develop a fictitious person.

“They get to name their own character now. For example, they could be a farmer, dockworker, slave, tradesman, professional or an aristocrat. Every time we teach something new about the war, they will write in their journals as that person,” said sixth-grade teacher Fred Morecraft. “All of the sixth-grade teachers are taking part with their students.”

At a re-enactment staged for the students last Friday, Waynesburg University professors Rea Redd and Richard Krause and Krause’s son, Darren, a junior at Carmichaels Area High School, each shared their expertise of the war.

Krause, who is chairman of the communication department at Waynesburg University, portrayed real-life Civil War reporter Junius Browne. Browne peppered his accounts of the war with half-truths and sometimes stories he simply made up entirely. One of his most famous stories was a colorful report of a battle that took place 200 miles from where Browne was when it occurred. He wrote as if he was in the midst of it.

Browne was captured, along with fellow reporter Albert Richardson, by the Confederate army in Mississippi. They eventually escaped and wrote about their experiences.

Krause’s wife, Marie, who also took part in the re-enactment, talked to students about the roles of women in the Civil War, especially the use of women as spies, of which there were many.

The younger Krause and fellow student Alex Campbell were infantrymen in their re-enactment groups, Campbell with the 140th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry and Darren Krause with the 13th Virginia Infantry Co. H.

“We had planned for the kids to fill out enlistment papers when it started raining,” Morecraft said. Questions such as, “Do you have all of your teeth?” “Are you missing any fingers?” and “What is your occupation?” will be on the questionnaire to enlist, he said.

With a soft rain falling, a small group of students stayed behind to help break camp. They collectively said tent building was their favorite part of the day, but Morecraft knows before they finish their studies on the Civil War, they will add more favorites to the list. He said this is his favorite time of the school year.