Battery I 1st US Artillery | Minnesota Education

Educational Programs

Battery I, 1st US Artillery is dedicated to preserving and honoring the memory of the original Civil War era military unit whose name we have taken.

Artillery Ranks

School of the Piece

Minnesota in the Civil War | Civil War Artillery | 12pdr Napoleon

As part of this effort and in keeping with our non profit status and charter, we take great pleasure in speaking to and working with young people in a variety of venues from public schools, charter schools, boy scout troops and others to doing small town living history events for communities and civic organizations, educating the general public of all ages. We are all volunteers and do this out of the “love” of the period and history. We are, in effect, all teachers in that way. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing the “light” come on in the eyes of a young person who suddenly realizes that history is really “fun” and that this period of history is something they want to learn more about.

These educational events take a variety of forms and involve a variety of equipment. Most of what we do is to speak to 5th to 11th grade public school classes during a 45 minute to 1 hour time frame. These presentations are often done to accent and enhance the course of study that is currently being taught in class. We come in uniform and bring along period equipment and talk about what it was like to be a soldier during the Civil War period. We talk about Minnesota Civil War history, drill, rations, bugle calls, equipment, flags, casualties, disease and what soldiers did to avoid the boredom of military service. We talk about the things that are not in the history books and make it “real” for the kids. We always leave a part of the time to take questions. These presentations are at “no charge” to the school. To help us fund our organization, we will approach local veteran or civic groups to sponsor the talk and we ask the teacher to write a request letter to us so we may pursue funding from these organizations. We are all volunteers and since this is a weekday (during the workweek) event, it limits how many we can do but it is a very important part of what we do as an organization. If you are a teacher, administrator, student or parent and want information on this program, contact us through information below.

On other fronts, we participate in local and small town living history events where we often will set up an encampment and show the whole spectrum of how the soldiers lived, slept, ate, drilled and functioned throughout the day. These events will involve us bringing in a cannon and firing it, if permissible. These guns make a lot of noise and notification of local police and fire is essential. If you want to have us attend a local celebration or “history day”, please contact us. Fees associated with these events depend on length of event, distance from our storage in St. Paul and expenditure of supplies and ammunition involved. Contact us and we will get you a figure.