Speaking of the (American) Civil War

Allan N. Houghton, of Marshfield, Mass., founder and long-time publisher of the H.A.A. Journal, is also a Civil War re-enactor (his persona is that of a 1st Lieutenant of Engineers).  He writes that his work for the last year has involved various aspects of restoration of Fort Warren, in Boston Harbor, with a particular focus on the fort's role in the Civil War. In working on the fort's magazine and an adjacent gunroom last spring, he made two replica howitzers: then, this past August, in his re-enactor persona, he led two gun crews in the actual 1860's gun drill with the replicas. He writes that he also re-enacted the presentation of the colors to the 12th Massachusetts Regiment of Infantry--his great-great-grandfather, James Gordon Smith, had served in Company G of that regiment.