Civil War

Folksinger Jennie Avila is bringing the past back to life in her second album of Civil War songs. Avila tells intimate stories about the lives of real people in the Civil War, many of the stories found right here in Washington County. “I'm approaching a big event, the whole Civil War, from a very intimate perspective,” Avila said. “I hope people realize how people can solve problems other than through war. It was very difficult - starvation, disease, death through killing, and fear, and all those sorts of things.” Avila's album, “Love and Lore of the Civil War,” is scheduled to be launched at a release party Saturday night at Georgia Boy at Park Circle in Hagerstown.

A Dec. 15 Christmas celebration in Blue Ridge Summit will harken to the holidays 150 years ago when the region's men were headed to battle in the Civil War. Living historians associated with the Monterey Pass Battlefield will gather in the battlefield's future interpretive center off Pa. 16 across from Happel's Meadow from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. There, they will get together around a fire and talk about families being separated by war in 1862. “There are a couple different scenarios we'll be playing out,” said John Miller, historian.

Mort Künstler, a world-renowned Civil War artist, has donated his artwork to Timber Ridge School in Winchester for its annual Mort Künstler Collectable Christmas Ornaments. That donation has enabled the school to raise more than $625,000 through its ornament sale, with every dollar going to the nonprofit school and its programs.  The school and Künstler forged a relationship in 1986 based on the artist's dealings with several other Winchester businesses. The artist found that the school's administration was offering something that he would like to support.

The Western Maryland Regional Library and the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts are looking for items created between 1859 and 1867 that reflect life around the time of the Civil War and early Reconstruction periods. On Saturday, Nov. 17, items that tell your family's stories can be scanned for inclusion in the statewide collection of Civil War material online at the Maryland Digital Cultural Heritage website, www.mdch.org/civilwar The Hagerstown event is part of an effort by the Maryland history libraries and museums to make available to the public Civil War material owned by individuals.

Age: 41 City: Williamsport (born in Baltimore) Day job: United Parcel Service Inc. (20 years); The Baltimore Bookworks LLC (the publishing house I founded in 2009) Book title: "Old Line Divided: Maryland in the Civil War: Volume I: Antebellum to 1862" Genre: United States history/Civil War Quick synopsis: A full narrative of the Civil War and of Maryland, and Marylanders in the Civil War. Publisher: The Baltimore Booksworks LLC Price: $29.95 Pages: 368, including photographs and index What inspired you to write the book?

The Maryland History and Culture Collaborative invites Washington County residents to bring Civil War-era documents for scanning into a state archive. MHCC representatives will have scanning equipment from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 17, at Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, City Park, Hagerstown. Area residents are invited to bring letters, diaries, pension materials, photographs, maps, hand-drawn sketches, claims for damage or any other Civil War-era document to be scanned for inclusion in the Maryland Digital Cultural Heritage.

A 24-foot high cross will now overlook motorists driving down Sharpsburg Pike and past The Battle of Antietam in Miniature building on the right. The cross was put up Friday as Pastor Bill Mantel from Cambridge, Minn., along with a team of area residents, assembled it to honor those who were killed in the Civil War and the Battle of Antietam. “We know that God played a very important part in what was happening in the Battle of Antietam,” he said. “We want to give Him glory to what happened at that battle to where we are today.” The cross is part of an international ongoing project for Mantel, of Christian Cyber Ministries, where he plans to put at least one cross in every country and at least one in every state in the United States.

Chambersburg Civil War Seminars and Tours donated $6,500 for battlefield preservation on Oct. 2, presenting $5,000 to Antietam National Battlefield and $1,500 to the Save Historic Antietam Foundation. The Greater Chambersburg Chamber of Commerce offers the seminars with co-founder Ted Alexander. The money was raised through the auction of Civil War books and other memorabilia at a July seminar about the Battle of Antietam, as well as other fundraising efforts, according to a news release.

During October 150 years ago, people lined the street outside a New York gallery to see something the likes of which they had never seen before. Inside were images of corpses captured just moments after battle hundreds of miles away at a place called Antietam. Photographer Alexander Gardner had shot the merciless photos about a month earlier for gallery owner Matthew Brady. Reproductions of those portraits are among the artifacts anchoring the exhibit “Bringing the Story of War to Our Doorsteps,” which opened Saturday at the Pry House Field Hospital Museum at Antietam National Battlefield.

1. War and the fort Picketing the Potomac - Retreat from Antietam is an event to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Event 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 6; 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 7. Fort Frederick State Park, 11100 Fort Frederick Road, Big Pool. Re-enactors will portray soldiers and civilians from the Civil War. Highlights both days include children's drill, 11:30 a.m.; presentation on Fort Frederick during the Civil War, noon; military tactical drills, 1 p.m.; 12th Illnois presentation, 2 p.m. $3 per vehicle for Maryland residents; $5 per vehicle for non-residents.