New Haven Independent

Many soldiers died from the canister fired by the rebels’ two mountain howitzers and during the subsequent skirmishing in the nearby woods.

For a few fortunate, or unfortunate, wounded soldiers, a sawbones, aka a military doctor, was nearby to lop off their wounded limbs.

The living history event, which was a modest but effective re-staging of the Nov. 6-7, 1861, amphibious landing at the Battle of Port Royal in South Carolina, drew several hundred spectators Saturday, as well as participants, from the Greater New Haven area and lower New England.

With its white pup tents dotting the verdant field overlooking New Haven harbor, the reenactment — invasions, drills, dress parades, and soldiers staying in character while interacting with a strolling audience — kicked off a $1.3 million history-consciousness and fundraising campaign by the Fort Nathan Hale Association to build a museum on the site by 2011.

“History in New Haven,” said association President William MacMullen (shown here with one of the many camp ladies present), “is not given nearly the attention it deserves. We want to turn that around.”

MacMullen, whose day job is as the architect and chief of the city’s capital projects program, took over a passionate if sleepy Fort Nathan Hale organization two years ago and is steadily bringing it back to life.

What better way to get people’s attention than by shooting off a dozen rounds from two mountain howitzers? These Confederates (right to left in photo) Mark Allen and Lee Jones, of West Haven’s Liberty Grays deployed the weapons to defend against the invading Federals.

A mountain howitzer, the explicator of the battle told avid listeners, is a cannon that can go anywhere a mule can go, with the barrel on one animal’s back and the carriage on another’s.

Helping overcome the Rebels was Emmett Bell-Sykes, of the Boston-based all-black 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry regiment, made famous in the movie Glory. You can tell he’s a sergeant by the red sash around his waist. Just as you can tell First Sgt. Scalora’s unit belonged to the first division, sixth army, by the cross-like corps badge on his frock coat.

These regular guys — Scalora is in high tech, Bell-Sykes is a mechanic — invest their time and money in accurate costumes and equipment. They tour schools and see themselves as educators. The 54th’s Bell-Sykes said that for him the purpose of the serious hobby is to “share a story of overcoming obstacles [that is] particularly inspiring to African-American kids.”

Scalora wanted it to be known that he’s into reenactment not because of guns and glory. “Battle and war is a bad thing,” he said, before inventorying the rifles in his unit for the upcoming skirmish. Through living history, he said, “you can use all your senses to recreate history.” In his view, American history lessons are lacking in the schools.

That will begin to change in New Haven if MacMullen is successful. His plans include building a “green” museum at Fort Nathan Hale that will be in effect an armory to house the troops and artifacts of the storied Second Company Governor’s Foot Guard.

That unit, the centerpiece of the annual Powder Day Event on the Green, is being kicked out of its longtime home on Goffe Street.

The planned armory, doubling as a museum, would be the first built in the state since the 1920s, MacMullen said. Next activities? The answer was obvious: Because Fort Nathan Hale is also the site of Black Rock Fort, where outnumbered colonial New Haveners defended against the invading British, a Revolutionary War reenactment is coming our way.

For those interested in firing off at least their pecuniary muskets and supporting the worthy Fort Nathan Hale campaigns, click here for information.

And click here for Tom Ficklin’s video and photos of the reenactment.