Civil War re-enactors stage drill, push for museum campus in St. Charles
Kim Malay looks out of place.
She wears a Bluetooth earbud, keeps her laptop within reach and hands out her business card.
She's modern and friendly; her allies, old-fashioned and gruff - at least when they're preparing for war.
Both, despite appearances, are fighting the same cause: Turning Camp Kane in St. Charles into a museum campus.
Their most recent victory was persuading the city council last month to give landmark status to the former training ground used by the famed 8th Illinois Calvary during the Civil War.
Some 153 years after the camp's opening along the Fox River, the mounted troops were back Saturday, firing black powder out of rifles and pitching camp. It was a spring drill allowing Civil War re-enactors - and Malay's supporters - to prepare for a busy summer season.
While they gave history lessons to visitors, Malay explained the mission of the Camp Kane Heritage Foundation.
"We've got a whole lot more energy going at this thing," said Malay, who left her Civil War-era wardrobe at home Saturday.
As the foundation's president, Malay will help launch a fundraising drive for an ambitious, long-awaited plan: Bringing an outdoor education center, memorial and rebuilt Farnsworth mansion to Camp Kane.
President Abraham Lincoln commissioned John Farnsworth to head the calvary, and his former home on what is now Route 31 is currently dismantled in storage, Malay said. The foundation wants to convert it into a Civil War and Underground Railroad museum.
Their goal is memorializing the past, but also what the "community was founded on," she said.
"If you don't understand your history, you don't understand the good and the bad of that history, you tend to make the same mistakes over," Malay said.
Bob Johnson, a former history teacher who works with the foundation, envisions the grounds as the southern gateway to St. Charles.
"I don't know if it was the honor or the glory or what it was, but I've just always been fascinated by the Civil War," the Batavia man said.
His is an expensive hobby. His rifle alone, a Sharp carbine, costs about $800. Fellow re-enactors in the 8th Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Cavalry get their wool uniforms from sutlers - traveling salesmen who followed the armies - online or at big re-enactments.
"Everybody thinks I'm making 'Star Wars' jokes," said Colin John Fagan, another re-enactor, as he pulled out his light saber.
Fagan stood guard over the camp's rations - coffee, cured meats, breads, spices. He says he strives for authenticity to teach spectators about the sacrifices of war.
"It's not just these generals moving pieces around on a chessboard," the Riverside man said. "It's actually live men and women that are out there doing the fighting."
Saturday's drill wasn't too solemn, though, with re-enactors like Brian Mensching praising the city for dedicating the site as Camp Kane last fall. Now, only the upper portion is called Langum Park.
"That's what we're celebrating today," he said.
The re-enactors will return to Naper Settlement's Civil War Days May 16-17 in Naperville.