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Home > Archive > Oct 11, 2007

A High School Battlefield for DHS Students
By Cami Cox
Staff Writer
Brother fought against brother and neighbor against neighbor in the bloodiest war to ever take place on American soil, and on Oct. 4, Dixie High School students got to experience some of the realities of the Civil War firsthand.
“They really have no idea what it was really like,” Senior Master Sgt. Larry Jones, a Junior ROTC teacher at Dixie High, said. “To them, it's just words in a book, but if they get a chance to fire the weapons, wear the uniforms, eat some of the food, hear some of the stories, then it means a little bit more to them.”
Jones and others in Dixie's JROTC program invited members of the Nevada Civil War History Association to come to the school and instruct students about the Civil War. A nonprofit group from Las Vegas, the NCWHA travels regularly to perform their war reenactments for schools and groups. They visit about 16 schools each year, NCWHA member Don Hotchkiss said.
From period-accurate tents and uniforms to real, operational muskets and pistols, equipment used by the NCWHA in their reenactments is as true to life as it gets. Students attending the reenactment demonstrations and lectures got to wear the uniforms, sample food, such as hardtack, like the soldiers ate and even fire the black powder muskets – powder only, of course, no bullets, Hotchkiss said.
“The equipment is all reproduction, but it's authentic down to the last stitch,” Hotchkiss said. “We weighed that food out to the fraction of an ounce to show what an actual ration, one daily ration of food would look like to a Union soldier.”
Members of Dixie's JROTC, a leadership class offered at the high school to prepare students for leadership and military service should they choose that occupational route, lined up in a field behind the high school, clad in Civil War uniforms with muskets in hand. Following the commands of an ROTC leader, the “soldiers” charged and fired while their fellow students watched from nearby bleachers.
“I think it gave them an understanding of what it would actually be like to be there fighting on the battlefield for hours on end in these coats that are made of wool, sweating. And we don't even have humidity, so add that on top of everything,” Terri Howell, a history and sociology at Dixie High, said. “It brings history to life, and any time you can do that for a student, it makes it more meaningful to their own lives. I hope they learn something new about the Civil War that isn't in the textbooks.
“Real life, real things happened – things that they don't read about. I also wanted to bring them here so that they could see and hear and kind of get a feel of what it might have been like to live during that time.”
The demonstrations, which took place throughout the day, were originally intended for the JROTC students only, but when some of the DHS history teachers found out about the reenactment, they quickly jumped on board so their students could get a dose of the live-action history, as well.
There were quite a few firsts during this reenactment day, Hotchkiss said. This was the first time the group had allowed students to fire the black powder muskets during the demonstrations; it was also the first time SCWHA demonstrated for an ROTC group, and it was the first time the group had journeyed to Utah to stage a reenactment.
Members of the SCWHA also perform other historical reenactments and presentations, about subjects such as the Revolutionary War and Benjamin Franklin. The group will travel to present their reenactments and lectures to any group, Hotchkiss said, so they're a good educational resource for teachers.
“We like history, we like teaching it, and we like, hopefully, sparking an interest in young people to take an interest in history,” he said.
To contact the SCWHA, e-mail Hotchkiss at cpth65eng@aol.com.

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