TONTOGANY — Last year, Otsego Junior High School, in conjunction with the Grand Rapids Historical Society
and the Otsego Endowment Foundation, held its first Civil War Reenactment Day.
On May 9, students will be holding their second annual Civil War Reenactment Day from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30
p.m. on a field on Sycamore Road in Grand Rapids. Otsego’s eighth-graders will be the teachers and
demonstrators on that day.
The event is open to the public.
In order to prepare for this day, there were a total of eight different reenactor groups that visited
eighth grade social studies classes.
These reenactors represented the stations that the eighth-graders will be manning on May 9.
Four re-enactors paid a visit this month to the school, including John Cooper as Abraham Lincoln; Neil
Buttermore as a cavalry soldier; Anthony Gibbs as John Parker, conductor on the Underground Railroad;
and Lee Randles and friends as the U.S. Colored Troops.
On May 9, the day will include the Napoleon Community Band playing era music at 10:30 a.m., the
Gettysburg Address at 12:55 p.m. and the battle at 1 p.m.
