Re-enactors’ MHS visit recalls bloody Civil War
BY DAVE BENJAMIN
Staff Writer

DAVE BENJAMIN Civil War re-enactor Daniel Torrisi demonstrates bugle calls used during the war.

MANALAPAN — Civil War re-enactors brought their unique perspective on an important time in American history to a special Veterans Day remembrance at Manalapan High School.

Supervisor of Social Studies Michelle Lilley said veterans from Korea, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf War were also part of the school’s events.

Craig Skalet, Bill Bruno and Daniel Torrisi, who are members of the 7th New Jersey Regiment Volunteers, Civil War re-enactors, took part in the learning experience.

"We’re here to commemorate the honor of all veterans, both past and present," Bruno said. "We’re here to remind students that freedom is not free. We’re losing soldiers every day overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan and I want them to understand that the price that was paid 140 years ago continues to this day."

DAVE BENJAMIN Civil War re-enactors Bill Bruno (l) and Craig Skalet explain how Union and Confederate soldiers carefully loaded their rifles.

Bruno said this is a way of making young people sensitive to what is going on in the world today.

"They should not take things for granted," he said.

Skalet said, "Today we’re showing them what a soldier had to go through, some of the hardships, the approximate number of men we lost [in battle] and what the soldier had to deal with when he bivouacked, when he slept and when he marched. We are also talking about his pay scale, a private got $13 a month, while a musician got $18 a month."

Skalet noted that more soldiers died in the Civil War than in all other wars combined.

"In Vietnam we lost 58,000 boys in 10 years," he said. "In one battle alone, at Antitem (in southern Maryland), the bloodiest day in American history, we lost 24,000 men. From 1861-65, 2 percent of the population was destroyed, Skalet said.

"This is a living history, an educational event," said Torrisi, a private who is also a bugler in the regiment. "We’re trying to raise the awareness of the students and teach them that veterans are not just something from the 20th Century."

During the lesson the re-enactors passed out Civil War artifacts such as musket balls and explained the meaning of the items. They taught the students that more deaths occurred from diseases like diphtheria, whooping cough and chronic diarrhea than bullets. The men died by the thousands, the students were told, because there were no inoculations and when city boys and country boys mixed the diseases ran rampant.

Students learned that uniforms were made of wool for the summer and different colored piping on the sleeve meant a soldier was in the infantry (light blue), cavalry (yellow), ordinance/artillery (red) or medical (green).

"An officer on a horse could look [at a soldier] and tell where you should be or should not be," said Skalet.

Bruno explained the meaning of the emblems on the uniforms and then the re-enactors demonstrated the steps taken to load their rifles, noting that safety was paramount.

Torrisi explained the importance of the bugler.

"They could relay messages, act as a camp clock and help to build esprit de corps," said Torrisi. "They would build morale and enthusiasm among the troops."

Torrisi explained that it was the bugler, or drum and fifer, that would be able to alert a camp of 20,000 men or send them off to sleep.

Bruno said he became involved in the re-enactments about 17 years ago while he was taking a collage class. The in­structors were all re-enactors.

"When they walked in the second night [of the course] with their uniforms on, I walked up to them after class and said I wanted to join," said Bruno. "They told me how to do it and I’ve been doing it ever since."

Bruno said it’s a great hobby and he is able to combine his experiences, which he uses in teaching, with his love for camp­ing. He noted that he was in the movie "Glory."

"We were actually re-enacting the 125th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg and they took some of the film clips from the re-enactment and wove it into the theme of the movie," he said. "We just happened, by chance, to be in the right place at the right time."

Torrisi has been involved with the re-enactments for four years and Skalet has about eight years of experience.

"We’re a family oriented group," Skalet said. "All the re-enactors do it for the ca­maraderie and getting together to get one point across — it should never happen again."