History Relived

By Nick Pinto
POSTED September 1, 2007

Just half a mile from the bustle of Lower Manhattan, the stately homes, tree-lined paths and 19th-century fortifications of Governors Island make it easy for visitors to imagine that they have stepped back into another era. One weekend last month, dozens of men donned the Union blue and Confederate gray to complete the illusion and bring the island’s Civil War history to life.

On the lawn outside Fort Jay, shots rang out as a corporal drilled his infantrymen through a series of vollies. Not far away, Linda Jovic, in 1860s garb, sat knitting a muffler from a period pattern. Immigrant women, she said, often came to the island from Manhattan to sell such creations to the soldiers.
“Nice thing about the long skirt,” she confided, “is the bugs can’t get in there.”

At a mock rally in the shady courtyard of Fort Jay, a Union surgeon (portrayed by a reenactor from the Long-Island-based 119th New York Volunteers) was imploring the men in the crowd to step forward and enlist.

“Take up your swords against the evils of the South!” he shouted.

Fort Jay’s low, star-shaped battlements crown the island’s highest hill. Nearby the tall circular fortress of Castle Williams looms over the northern shore.

Both forts were built in the early 19th century, outfitted with heavy artillery to protect the harbor from enemy vessels.

During the Civil War the fortifications were converted to an Army training base for new soldiers on their way to fight.

The island was also home to an Army “School of Practice” for military bands.

Standing in the courtyard of Fort Jay, Joe Korber led his group of fife and drum players through “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” “The Union Forever” and other tunes of the period. Afterwards, he explained to visitors the importance of musicians to 19th century armies.

“Field music was your alarm clock,” he said, “telling you when to wake up and go to sleep. It kept morale... And it was often the only way to communicate in the din of battle.”

Across the island, lying indolently in a pile of hay in the courtyard of Castle Williams, Scott Kwiecinski and John Greenfield of the 3rd Alabama Infantry portrayed captured rebels. The disheveled pair grumbled over their luck and their rations, an unappetizing looking lump of flavorless hardtack.

“The captured officers ate pretty well,” Kwiecinski said. “Not us.”

During the Civil War Governors Island served as a transitional internment camp for Confederate prisoners of war on their way to more long-term prisons elsewhere. And, indeed, officers kept in Fort Jay not only got better food but could roam the island freely if they signed a pledge that they would not try to escape.

Other prisoners were packed into Castle Williams, where they endured miserable conditions and, in 1861 and 1862, a measles epidemic.

Future uses for Governors Island remain uncertain. (The historic north end is the protected domain of the National Parks Service.) Proposals range from parkland to a college campus to converting Castle Williams to a reproduction of Shakespeare’s Globe Theater.

Paul Patti, reenacting the life of a Union soldier as he hunched over a smoky campfire cooking sausages, said he was sure of one thing: Visitors need to know about the island’s past.

“We’re here because there is already such a rich history that a lot of people aren’t aware of,” Patti said. “It should be taken into account.”

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