By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org
This weekend, time travel back to 1862 and walk among more than a hundred of Civil War military, cavalry, and civilian re-enactors.
The 13th Annual Van Raalte Farm Civil War Muster will take Saturday and Sunday at the Raalte farm, located at 176 E. St., Holland.
Re-enactors will be setting up camps where they will live, sleep, cook over campfires, play games and relax until the Battle of Antietam. The Battle of Antietam, which originally took place in Sharpsburg, Maryland, was a clash of Union General George McClellan’s Army of the Potomac and Confederate General Robert. E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. The re-enacted battle will take place at 2 p.m Saturday and Sunday at the Van Raatle Farm.
Other activities include:
• Springfield, Illinois, actor Fritz Klein, will portraying President Abraham Lincoln
• Discussions from Generals Meade (Union) and Lee, Jackson, and Stuart (Confederate) about the Battle of Antietam
* A presentation by Professor Allen Guelzo, a foremost scholar on Civil War from Princeton University
* A lecture by Frank O’Reilly, a historian with National Park Service at Fredericksburg and Spotslvania National Military Park and Pam Welcome who portrays Harriet Tubman
• Music tom the Volunteer Regimental Band of Holland
• Tours of the Ben Van Raalte 1872 homestead
• An authentic 1860s church services will be at 10 a.m. Sunday
The muster runs from 9 a.m .to 9 p.m. Saturday and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m .Sunday.
