Feb 20

Feb 20 Local history for local students at CSS Neuse Center

Photo by Janet Sutton / Neuse News

By Janet Sutton

“How'd you kids get here today?" asks David Stone as students watch a small steam-powered locomotive glide across the tracks in front of them. The students were listening to Stone, a historical interpreter, as they visited the CSS Neuse Civil War Interpretive Center on Queen Street in Kinston.

On Wednesday the center hosted free tours for Lenoir County Schools fourth-graders which were made possible by a $1700 sponsorship from Tands, Inc/ Bojangles. The donation covered expenses for student admission and their transportation to the site.

Site manager Matthew Young and his staff coordinated the event with Lenoir County Schools.

"I think it's very important that local kids get a chance to (experience) local history," Young, said. "I think that if you understand your roots you have a much better understanding of where you might want to go.”.

The tour featured nine activity stations with lessons relating to ships, clothing, nursing, dentistry and other facets of the Civil War era.

"It makes it a lot more realistic to (the students) if they can relate it to their everyday lives," Young said. "You talk about a steam locomotive and kids start staring into the distance because they don't know what you're talking about, but (a historic interpreter) made it relevant by talking about school buses and transportation, (which is) something fourth graders can comprehend. The key is making it relevant for the visitor and that's always what we strive to do.”.

Staff from the Bentonville Battlefield and Fort Fisher historic sites assisted with the tours through demonstrations and historical talks. John Moseley, education director at Fort Fisher, portrayed an 18th-century dentist.

"Be thankful you're living in today’s world," Moseley said as he explained the unsanitary practices of removing teeth from dead soldiers and how bones were used to make carvings.

Around the corner, Shannon Walker, who traveled from Brunswick Town Fort Anderson State Historic Site covered the role of nurses. About six years ago she began focusing on 18th and 19th-century medical history.

"Diarrhea or dysentery killed more men during the Civil War than any other disease; that always seems to blow them away," Walker said.

Throughout the site, interpreters were merging elementary education and history. Upstairs on the mezzanine students learned about the day in the life of a soldier.

"Each soldier got 12 crackers a day,” said operations manager Morris Bass as he held up a piece of hardened dried bread and asked the students '“what’s 3 times 12?” to which they replied with the correct answer.

From 9am to noon children gazed at various displays, maps and artifacts as they visited the activity stations. Jesse Stroud was one of the students who had never visited the site before, and he was captivated by the presentation.

"I like how it's showing us how stuff worked back then and how all the ships looked and how everything worked,” Stroud said. “This is a cool experience for me.”