HISTORIC RE-ENACTORS WILL RESCUE HISTORY AT NEW ORLEANS MILITARY MUSEUM

SPRINGFIELD, IL - A group of re-enactors who make history come to life at an 1830s log village and a Lewis and Clark site will soon travel to New Orleans to help rescue important pieces of that state's flood-damaged history.

 

            Members of the volunteer New Salem Militia and the Camp River Dubois Detachment will leave with a group February 4 for the Jackson Barracks Military Museum in New Orleans to help rescue hundreds of historic weapons and flags that were under 13 feet of water as a result of flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina.  New Salem Militia members portray citizen soldiers at Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site near Petersburg, Illinois; some of these same men are also members of the Camp River Dubois Detachment, portraying members of the Corps of Discovery at Lewis and Clark State Historic Site in Hartford, Illinois.  All have experience in identifying and caring for these items, skills that will be put to the test before they return to Illinois on February 12, Lincoln's Birthday.

 

            Team members will attempt to locate as much of the museum's collections as possible in the deep muck that has settled in and around the site, including small arms from the 18^th and 19^th centuries and Civil War era cannons.  They will retrieve the items, stabilize them, wrap them in protective coverings, and get them ready for transfer to specialists who will begin the long, painstaking conservation and restoration process.  They will also take before and after photographs of all recovered artifacts to assist in the museum's property registration process.       

 

            This mission is a follow-up to a December 3 - 20 trip to the same museum taken by three team members to help rescue and stabilize 127 historic flags and guidons, a task they will attempt to complete during February.

 

            "The museum was a mess," said Maj. Mark Whitlock, director of the Illinois State Military Museum at Springfield's Camp Lincoln, who organized the December mission.  "The only light was what we had mounted to our helmets.  We were crawling through the muck around shelving units, looking for anything that could be rescued." 

 

Whitlock received a call for assistance from his counterpart in New Orleans, who had heard of the work Illinois had done for the Hall of Flags at Camp Lincoln.  As an active member of the New Salem Militia, which demonstrates early 1800s military life for thousands of Lincoln's New Salem visitors each year, Whitlock knew several of his fellow re-enactors had an interest in preserving military history.  Two of those men, James Patton and Paul Golladay, joined him on the December mission.   New Orleans museum officials were impressed by the team's efforts and asked if they'd be willing to return. 

 

In addition to Whitlock, the following men are scheduled to take part in the February mission to New Orleans:

·                    Spc. Paul Golladay, an employee of the Illinois Military Museum and a member of the New Salem Militia and Camp River Dubois Detachment.  He took part in the December mission and will help finish the flag recovery.

·                    James W. Patton, retired interpreter at Lincoln's New Salem, current volunteer at the Illinois Military Museum, and member of the New Salem Militia and Camp River Dubois Detachment.  He who also took part in the December mission and will continue the flag recovery effort as well.

·                    Don Ferricks, member of the New Salem Militia and Camp River Dubois Detachment, and currently an interpreter at Lincoln's New Salem.

·                    Dennis Nichols, member of the New Salem Militia and Camp River Dubois Detachment, and currently a site technician at Lewis and Clark State Historic Site in Hartford, Illinois.

·                    Richard Schachtsiek, retired site manager at Postville Courthouse in Lincoln and Mt. Pulaski Courthouse, and a New Salem Militia member.

·                    Jim Kreiser, Illinois State Military Museum volunteer and retired forensic scientist and firearms expert with the Illinois State Police.

·                    Sgt. Damian Smith, National Guard historian for the State of Pennsylvania.

 

Ferricks and Nichols are employed by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, which is paying the men their regular state salary while they are in New Orleans.  All travel, lodging and incidental expenses for team members are being paid by the U.S. Government.  "Governor Blagojevich did not hesitate when I asked if we could temporarily assign Don and Dennis to New Orleans to provide this vital assistance," said Agency Director Robert Coomer.

 

The men will not have to start from scratch on this trip.  While there in December, the team used $15,000 donated by a retired Illinois National Guardsman to set up a "history triage center" and equip it with the necessary generators, furnishings and instruments.  The money also helped pay for two computers to replace those destroyed in the hurricane, and the team was able to install the museum's database on the new computers before turning them over.

 

"The museum curator in New Orleans was also hit pretty hard by the hurricane," said Whitlock.  "So, in our free time, we went to Slidell, Louisiana and helped repair his house so he and his family could celebrate Christmas in their own home."

 

Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site is a recreated log village where Abraham Lincoln lived for six years.  It is located along Route 97 about two miles south of Petersburg and 20 miles northwest of Springfield.  Lewis and Clark State Historic Site features a reconstructed Camp River Dubois as well as a new museum that chronicles the Expedition's five-month preparation time in Illinois.  It is located just off of Illinois Route 3 about three miles north of I-270.  Both sites are open for free public tours.