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High school and middle school students are literally getting a hands-on approach to Civil War history at an archaeology site in northern Ohio. David Bush, professor of anthropology and director of CHMA, has opened the program up to younger students to work alongside university students in doing the tedious, methodical work.
The prison was hastily built in on the small island in Sandusky Bay.
During the course of the war, it housed almost 10, prisoners, as many as 3, at any one time. The island location made escape difficult, but not impossible.
There were several attempts, and some were successful. Bush has been directing an archaeological study of the A few years later he initiated a program to bring in students from the fifth through twelfth grades for a one-day session. About 30 schools participate each year.
Working under a big white tent, the students get down on their hands and knees and carefully evacuate one unit a two-meter square at a time. When they find something of interest, they are told to avoid the temptation to pull it out and see what it is.
You are commenting using your Twitter account. But Bush offered tidbits as he gave a personal tour to his new exhibit. The Battle of Guildford Courthouse "A fascinating study that will appeal to a variety of audiences. Well worth the read and a must for researchers of both Civil War prisoners of war and the Southern home front. Son of Real Florida Featured Book. She became interested in the Civil War after seeing a reenactment when she was in the third grade, and in archaeology as a fifth grader, after taking part in a five-week summer course by Dr.
Instead they carefully mark it and work around it to see if there are any other related pieces. They collect the soil in buckets and take it outside to sift it under supervision of Dr. Bush, his staff, and university students.
Bush says items like pieces of glass, buttons, and nails are found on a daily basis. While I was there, a high school freshman found a glittering metal object, which turned out to be a gold hairpin, thought to be used to keep eyeglasses in place. Items of significance like this are numbered and cataloged. But the project is more than simply finding and identifying artifacts. Bush places great emphasis on integrating the archaeological findings with historical research, relying on such things as diaries and letters.
After years, it's just "rich soil," Bush said. Life in a Civil War Prison," still available in paper and ebook editions.
For much of the war, life in the prison, exclusively used for holding officers, wasn't too bad, setting aside the risk of getting shot dead if you tried to escape. The officers could go where they liked inside the perimeter.
They staged shows and played an early version of baseball. Freemasons were allowed to attend Masonic events in Sandusky, Bush said.
The Union guards didn't have to worry that the masons would try to escape, because before they left, they gave their word as officers and gentlemen that they would not, Bush explained. But conditions did not get really difficult until the Union guards began reducing food rations in , retaliating for the starvation conditions that Union prisoners were enduring in prisons such as Andersonville. Peel, who eventually died of pneumonia, wrote in a letter, "It seems the yanks really intend to starve us to death. The strategy apparently was to get the officers to write home and ask for better conditions for Union prisoners.
If that was the intent, it didn't work, Bush said. The change in policy only made the Rebel prisoners more miserable, and some took to eating rats.
University Press of Florida Book: I Fear I Shall Never Leave This Island. Johnson's Island, in Sandusky, Ohio, was not the largest Civil War prison in the in compelling detail the physical challenges and emotional toll of prison life for POWs. I Fear I Shall Never Leave This Island: Life in a Civil War Prison [David R. Bush] on www.farmersmarketmusic.com *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Johnson's Island, in.
Still, out of 10, prisoners, only died. By contrast, Andersonville, a Confederate prison in Georgia, held 45, prisoners and 13, died. The museum and home are open from 9 a.
Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 5 p. Military and group discount available.