In order to learn more about the Civil War, this month’s session included a visit from members of the Sealed Knot. The re-enactors came along in costume and talked about what role their characters would have played during the Civil War. This ranged from an ordinary soldier to an ensign (an officer) and a peasant woman. Each explained how they had used both archaeological and historical information to make their costumes as accurate as possible.
They brought along a selection of replicas of the weapons that would have been used and explained how a matchlock rifle worked. YAC members learnt that when either army marched into a town the first thing they would do would be to steal all the cord from bed frames to make the fuses (match) for their guns and take the lead from the church roof to make more musket balls!
Then came the gruesome bit! They saw pictures of skulls found by archaeologists with all sorts of injuries from swords and musket balls. Amazingly archaeologists can tell that some of the people who had the injuries survived!