Community Corner

Sully Historic Site Hosts Civil War School of the Soldier in Chantilly

Event is set for Saturday and Sunday.

Come to Sully Historic Site on Saturday from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. or Sunday, from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m.and see what it was like to become a soldier during the Civil War.  

Camps of instruction were common to new recruits in 1861-1865 who came to the Confederate Army straight from farms, shops, and schoolrooms. When finally uniformed, armed and equipped, the men were drilled individually, by company and by battalion for six to eight hours a day.

At this family-friendly weekend-long event, visitors can expect to join in practicing a variety of skills necessary for survival in the field and in battle.  Pick up your wooden musket and learn the loading and firing drill. Then march in the field to learn battlefield maneuvers. This tactical training teaches soldiers how to respond to officers’ commands.  

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Pack a knapsack so you can carry food and all your personal belongings no matter where the army may send you. If it’s not packed correctly, it can be awkward and uncomfortable on the march. Set up a tent using two “shelter halves” for you and a buddy to sleep in.

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Meals were cooked over an open fire, but the choice of foods was limited to what was available locally and seasonally. Hardtack and salt pork were staples of the Civil War soldiers’ diet. See what’s cooking in the camp at Sully. 

Talk to the surgeon to learn about medical treatments of the day. The surgeon also served as dentist and apothecary to the troops, pulling teeth and preparing pills and poultices. 

Civilians worked as hard as the soldiers.  In addition to chores at home, some women served as nurses, cooks and seamstresses for the Army. They made their own clothes and sewed and knitted for soldiers. Learn how to roll bandages, an essential job for nurses.

During the war years, women of the Haight and Barlow families lived at Sully and kept the farm safe. Hear their stories during a tour of the house that was built in 1794 for Richard Bland Lee, Northern Virginia’s first congressman and uncle of Robert E. Lee.  

Admission to the event is $7/adults, $5/seniors and children. Sully Historic Site is located at 3650 Historic Sully Way in Chantilly. For more information, call 703-437-1794.

 


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