An audience consisting mostly of parents and school-age children watched in Seymour Saturday as Civil War re-enactors bit the end off paper cartridges, rammed them down the barrels of their Springfield rifles and demonstrated firing volleys by ranks, files and individually just as the real soldiers from Connecticut did 150 years ago.
The demonstration was among several activities at a Civil War encampment hosted by the Seymour Historical Society.
Loading a rifled musket took a bit of time for an infantryman in a Civil War battle, but the re-enactors explained that a recruit improved with practice and training.
“A well-trained soldier could get off three rounds a minute,” said Paul Martinello, playing the part of a first lieutenant during a demonstration by the re-enactors portraying members of Company F of the 14th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry Regiment.
But during a battle, Martinello said Civil War soldiers had to reload their weapons while standing in ranks exposed to enemy fire and potentially even a bayonet charge — so the task took a fair bit of nerve as well.
Martinello said Company F mustered into service in August 1862, and a month later they marched into combat for the first time in the Battle of Antietam, which history remembers as the bloodiest day in U.S. history.
Click here for a summary of the grisly battle from the Civil War Trust.
The unit was also at many of the Civil War’s most famous battles, including the disastrous Union defeats at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville and the war’s turning point, Gettysburg, where the regiment helped repel the infamous Pickett’s Charge.
The 14th also took part in the Wilderness Campaign battles of Spotsylvania Court House and Cold Harbor, as Union General Ulysses S. Grant sought to wear down Robert E. Lee’s smaller Confederate army by attrition in 1864.
And they were on hand at Appomattox Court House when Lee surrendered to Grant.
Martinello said at the end of the war, the regiment, which had numbered about 1,000 in August 1862, had only 143 men still in service.
He said he was always interested in the Civil War, but decided to join the re-enactment group 13 years ago after witnessing a re-enactment of the Battle of Cedar Creek in Virginia.
Martinello and his fellow 14th Connecticut re-enactors plan to be on hand from July 1 – 7 on the Gettysburg battlefield for the official observance of the 150th anniversary of the famous battle.
The 150th anniversary of the Civil War, which started in 2011 and will continue until 2015, has increased the demand for re-enactments like the one in Seymour, which also included an encampment demonstration and other exhibits.
Martinello said his group participates in one of these events about once a month.
The event also included a cook who showed how soldiers’ meals were prepared over an open fire.
Visitors also learned about the role of Civil War nurses and the life of Corporal Joseph Pierce, the highest-ranking Union soldier of Chinese heritage.
“It’s a good time for us to showcase who we are for the people who don’t come to the speakers programs,” said Historical Society President Paul Sussman.
