Battery D returns to Fort Wilkins
Program will continue
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COPPER HARBOR - Battery D, First Michigan Light Artillery reenactment and living history group returned to Fort Wilkins this past weekend, marking its 46th year of its annual encampment. A nagging fog and temperatures in the upper 50s did not dissuade attendance, with hundreds of spectators enjoying Civil War infantry drill demonstrations, fashion shows and even medical demonstrations, depicting amputations.
Initially, the group had announced this would its last visit to Fort Wilkins. However, that changed as recently as Friday evening. There will be some to the program, however, according Captain Paul Fay, battery commander.
Fay said the battery had talked about ending its annual visits, partially based on membership dwindling, and making the trip from the southern Lower Peninsula is becoming more and more difficult. However, since the initial decision was made, Fay said he had spoken with DNR Michigan History Center Historian Barry James.
"We're going to continue the program, but it's going to be earlier in the year, though" Fay said. "We're looking at Father's Day Weekend, so the third weekend in June."
In addition, the program will be shortened from three to two says, he said. "We're going to change (the program) up a little bit," said Fay. "We're going back a little old school."
He said one of the reasons the group is switching from the end of July to June is to increase participation at the fort. Many of the battery members are busy in July and August with family activities and with other things going on. Lower participation also impacts the ability to transport the equipment, which includes two 12-pounder Parrot rifled cannons, a Mountain Howizter, their carriages and ammunition, as well as the personal equipment required by the members.
Fay said he is aware that Houghton's Bridge Fest, Chassell's Strawberry Fest, Baraga's powwow, and Battery D's annual encampment are among the most popular events on the Keweenaw during the summer. That was one of the factors in their decision to continue the program.
"It's a lot of work," he said. "A lot of us leave Wednesday and take a couple of days to get up here," Fay said. "I've got a couple guys who leave out of here early Sunday; I've got a school teacher with his first day of school on Monday. He's got to be south of Indianapolis at 7 a.m. Monday."
Battery D is a recreation of an actual artillery battery that was raised in downstate Michigan, and mustered into Federal service in the Union Army on Sept. 17, 1861. One of the original 90-Day enlistment units called for by President Abraham Lincoln, Battery D left for combat on Dec. 9, two days after it was supposed to have been disbanded. The battery then was under the command of Captain William Andrew. The battery saw service in the western theater of war, in the Army of the Ohio. It served until the end of the war in 1865.
A Civil War Living History artillery unit, was founded in 1979 by Boots Newkirk, Jim Newkirk, Lloyd Jones and Lloyd Gene Jones. Based in Lower Michigan, the unit attends multiple events each year, including Fort Wilkins, Jackson Cascades (Host Unit), and Hastings. In October of this year, the battery will travel to Tennessee to participate in the reenactment of the Battle of Franklin.
It engages in classroom visits and public education regarding life during the 1860s, and does not glorify war, but rather, demonstrates its atrocities. It is a legally registered independent 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization, due to its dedication to educational and historic preservation missions. The battery acts as a mobile classroom entity, bringing period-accurate artifacts, uniforms, and civilian items into public schools to give students a tactile, sensory understanding of the 1860s that textbooks cannot replicate.
Fay said several of the group's members are from the Upper Peninsula, with some from Calumet, others from L'Anse and other towns, adding the group is currently seeking new members, for both military and civilian programs. Families as well as individuals are welcome.
Anyone interested in learning more can visit the battery's website at https://www.churchsbatteryd.org/