The Burning, Part 2

John Heatwole's book "The Burning" was the basis for a K-12 school event commemorating the burning of the valley and the wagon train commissioned by General Philip Sheridan to escort refugees north for the winter. On October 31 students learned all about life in the 1860s by participating in various activities in mixed age "family groups" that traveled from station to station. See more about it in the video below, and read about the burning of the valley in this article from the Washington Post.



After a morning plenary session in the auditorium to learn more about the Civil War in general and the burning of the valley in particular, students gathered in the gym to get organized into their family groups for the day. It was nice to see the older students taking leadership roles to help care for the younger ones. We had all sorts of learning stations available throughout the morning, everything from spinning and weaving to Civil War dancing to stories to modern day refugees to candle making and even soap making. Our head of school Mr. Leaman was leading a station making homemade ice cream the old fashioned way, with hand cranked churns, despite the fact that it was a cold and blustery morning.

I was glad to be by the fire with Mrs. Bender. We spent the morning making corn cakes and popcorn over an open fire for close to 400 people. Whew, what a whirlwind that was!

Our setup, minus the grate that Mr. Bender brought later

The nifty corn shelling machine

Grinding the corn into meal

Mrs. Bender tending to the corn cakes

I wish I'd had a chance to visit all the stations, but we truly stayed very busy fixing these corn snacks all morning. Before things got rolling I did snap a few photos though.

This was General Sheridan's headquarters for the day

A generous family donated a pickup truck load of apples for cider making

Loom at the spinning and weaving station

One other station allowed family groups to dress in period attire and take a family photo. Here are a few of the results. Notice anything odd about the third one?

Photo courtesy A. Gascho

Photo courtesy A. Gascho

Photo courtesy A. Gascho

After a period lunch of chicken stew, family groups loaded onto hay wagons for a ride up to a nearby hilltop. This journey was to commemorate the refugee train that left the valley in October of 1864. Up on the hill there was a brief geography lesson on the features of the Shenandoah Valley and a local gunmaker who demonstrated his muzzleloaders for the students.

One of four wagons that hauled students back and forth to the hilltop

Local gunmaker Lowell Haarer with Mr. Landes

Mrs. Melendez and Mrs. Bender in their period costumes. Mrs. Bender even made her own dress!

After returning from the hill students enjoyed the ice cream they had helped make earlier in the day. Here you can see Hannah with part of her family group.

Photo courtesy R. Yutzy

It was a lot of work to put this day together, and we couldn't have done it without everyone pitching in. Hopefully it resulted in learning and memories for the students involved.