The Civil War began on April 12 with the firing upon the US flag over Fort Sumter. It "ended" on April 9th, with the surrender of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.
An estimated 150,000 Irish Americans served in the Union armies, and an estimated 40,000 in the Confederate armies. These figures do not include the Scotch- Irish Presbyterians who fought, particularly in the Southern armies.
Robert Mulligan, former Military Curator at the New York State Museum, will take us through an authentic account of the daily lives of the "noble boys in blue." With a replica uniform, bedroll, cap and ball musket and bayonet, as well as the other accoutrements of a typical private of the 43rd New York Volunteers, we will learn how the Civil War soldiers ate, slept, marched, and fought - and how they were drilled, disciplined, and tested in the theater of war.