Watkins Museum to celebrate Lawrence’s frontier history with full slate of Civil War-era events

Every year, for a few fleeting days in mid- to late August, history comes alive in Lawrence and the surrounding area as part of the Douglas County Historical Society’s annual “Civil War on the Western Frontier.”

Long-dead historical figures like John Brown and W.B. Brockett resurface to relay their respective sides’ story of the famed Battle of Black Jack, modern-day history buffs walk on guided tours in the footsteps of Bleeding Kansas-era Lawrencians in the city’s storied downtown, and Quantrill’s Raids victims are read, one by one, in a solemn ceremony modeled after a real-life ceremony that took place some 150 years ago.

The Watkins Museum of History’s portion of the series returns to Lawrence this weekend, with a guided flashlight tour of the historic Oak Hill Cemetery kicking off the festivities Friday at 8 p.m. Meant to engage Lawrencians with our historically and politically significant past, this year’s programming celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area, and promises to be “bigger than ever,” at least according the Watkins Museum’s Facebook event page.

Most of the action will take place Saturday, Watkins Museum education and programs coordinator Abby Magariel said, although the aforementioned Black Jack Battlefield programming began Sunday and has continued throughout the week.

Lawrence is a town uniquely interested in its own history, Magariel explained — and for good reason.

“Instead of giving up and instead of leaving the town behind, the community rebuilt itself,” she said, referring to the aftermath of Quantrill’s Raid, the tragic event that left approximately 200 dead and the town burnt to the ground in August of 1863. “We have the history of Lawrence as a post-Civil War town on the frontier where families continued to rebuild and continued to thrive, and we have the history of Lawrence as a growing university town where there was industry along with this focus on education.”

It’s why, more than 100 years later, we still feel connected to our past. But, while a fair chunk of the city’s populace might be aware of the basic facts surrounding Lawrence’s role in the Civil War, there are some aspects that may have gone untold in textbooks, Magariel said.

Among the new selections in this weekend’s roster: a bus tour led by local historian Katie Armitage highlighting sites on Quantrill’s retreat out of Lawrence on that fateful night in 1863. The tour leaves the Watkins Museum, 1047 Massachusetts St., at 8:30 a.m. and again at 10:30 a.m. Saturday. Tickets are $25, and can be reserved at www.watkinsmuseum.org or by calling 841-4109.

“That’s a different history,” Magariel said. “A new part that (people) might not already know about.”

Also new this year is “School of the Soldier,” an interactive activity designed to give kids a glimpse into the lives of young troops in the Civil War.

Slated for Saturday at 1 p.m., the activity will take kids, ages 7 to 12, through activities resembling the Civil War version of modern basic training, said Will Hickox, assistant programs coordinator at the Watkins Museum.

Hickox is leading Saturday’s one-hour program, which will guide child-adult pairs through enlistment (using reproduced 1860s-era documents), marching formations, drills and a “scouting mission” — basically, a scavenger hunt around the museum’s galleries — for the new “recruits.”

By the program’s end, participants will have acquired enlistment bounty (play money), their official enlistment forms and mustering-out bounty upon discharging. Their reward for their service? Chocolate coins, though Hickox said there’ll be other options for those who don’t like chocolate.

Tickets for the event are $5, and children must be accompanied by an adult. In-advance registration is encouraged.

Many of the teenage soldiers who fought in the conflict were not much older than the kids who will be participating in “School of the Soldier,” he pointed out. The U.S. had a long history, in its formative years, of enlisting boys — some, oftentimes orphans, were as young as 12 or so — to keep rhythm with the drum or bugle on the front lines.

“During the war, this greatly expanded,” Hickox said. “They needed a lot of bodies, so they were more lax in their standards for recruitment,” with some recruiters bribing women to pose as mothers granting parental consent for these young men. Other times, it was the recruiter himself who would play the parental role and sign the necessary paperwork.

Across the country, as many as 20 percent of all Civil War soldiers were younger than 18, it’s now estimated. It’s important, Hickox said, for today’s kids to understand the role young people have played throughout history, especially the Civil War.

Magariel agrees.

“Even though they’ve just lived a short time, their life is influenced by these things that came before them,” she said. “And we hope that by getting kids interested in history, that this will impact their lives to come, that they will be able to think in broader terms than just (their) own personal experience.”

If we pay more attention to the actions of our country’s past, maybe “we can avoid making those mistakes again,” Magariel said.

For a full schedule of “Civil War on the Western Frontier” events, visit the Watkins Museum’s event page on Facebook.