The front lawn of the historic Beall House on the campus of the Wayne County Historical Society was transformed into a Union camp May 7 and 8 as the society hosted a Civil War encampment to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the War Between the States.

For two days reenactors from the 4th and 41st Ohio Volunteer Infantry recreated the life of a typical Civil War soldier.

Living in period recreations of the tents the soldiers would have called home, and eating the meager rations common at the time, reenactors clad in the blue wool uniforms of the Union Army set about the same tasks that Civil War era soldiers would have undertaken in the 1860s – cleaning equipment, firing weapons, marching and endlessly drilling.

Nearby, Civil War surgeon Major Virgil Kline and his wife, Ann, presented a display of medical equipment used by Civil War era surgeons and took questions from curious visitors about the state of medical care in the mid 1800s.

In the 1800s era one-room schoolhouse, visitors poured over a special traveling exhibit from the American Civil War Museum of Ohio in Tiffin, entitled Ohio’s Role in the Civil War, before heading to the Kister Building to meet President Abraham Lincoln and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, as portrayed by Gerald and Marilyn Payn, and view a special display of Lincoln memorabilia and items from the society’s extensive Civil War collection.

Amongst that collection is one of the society’s most prized pieces – the guidon, or battle flag, carried into the Battle of Chickasaw Bluffs in Mississippi in 1862 by the 16th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which was comprised of Union soldiers from the Wayne County area, and the brass eagle that once perched atop its flagpole. The guidon, which was retrieved from the battlefield by a local soldier and donated to the society in the early 1900s, underwent extensive restoration a number of years ago.

The society’s encampment is one of scores of special events statewide that will commemorate Ohio’s contribution to the war.

According to Captain Ron Rechnitzer, of the 41st Ohio Volunteer Infantry, his group, which is based out of the Wooster area, is one of dozens of similar reenactment groups that are active throughout the state of Ohio. Most of those groups, including the 4th and 41st Ohio Volunteer Infantry, will spend the majority of their weekends over the next several years taking part in events designed to coincide with significant events during the war.

The kick off of the state’s commemoration of the Civil War took place in April in Columbus.

Local Abraham Lincoln presenter Gerald Payn, who organized the society’s encampment, was there.

Payn, who was given the honor of delivering Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address from the steps of the State House in Columbus during the opening ceremonies for the commemoration, described himself as awestruck to be standing on the same steps Lincoln once stood while delivering a stump speech during his run for the presidency.

The society will continue its commemoration of the Civil War for the next several years.

Roger Rowe and the society’s military committee have planned a continually evolving exhibit in the Kister Building, which will be updated twice a year for the next four years to coincide with significant battles and events of the war.

The Wooster encampment was one of hundreds of events commemorating Ohio’s contribution to the war that are scheduled to take place throughout Ohio over the next five years. For a list of many of those events, log on to http://www.ohiocivilwar150.org.

For more information on the Wayne County Historical Society, visit their website at http://www.waynehistoricalohio.org.