23nd Annual Civil War Weekend
June 13th & 14th 2015

Peterboro community organizations are finalizing program plans for the 22nd Annual Peterboro Civil War Weekend on Saturday, June 13 from 10 am to 5 pm and on Sunday, June 14 from 10am to 4 pm. The educational event is also a fundraiser for the Smithfield Community Association, a not-for-profit that preserves and promotes historic sites in the Town of Smithfield.

The Smithfield Volunteer Fire Department barbeques chicken on Saturday and provides street security for the event that sprawls across the hamlet roadways. The Deli on the Green will be open extended hours to provide more food, drinks, and supplies. The Peterboro United Methodist church starts flipping pancakes for breakfast at 7 am on Sunday.

The Peterboro Area Museum is open both days and its president Beth Spokowsky and her sister Donna Burdick, Smithfield Town Historian, will be guiding the popular walking tour of the Hamlet of Peterboro at 12:30 both days. The Peterboro Mercantile, a community heritage shop, will be open at the Visitor Center and in a tent on the green.

The building sites at the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark will be open with exhibits on the Underground Railroad, African-Americans in Peterboro and Gerrit Smith, an introductory video, and photo collections of the last two decades of Civil War Weekend.

Exhibit panels from the NYS Museum exhibit The Irrepressible Conflict: The Empire State in the Civil War arrived in Peterboro this week in time to join other exhibits at the Abolition Museum.

John Brown’s great great great granddaughter Alice Keesey Mecoy will speak at the museum at 11:30 on Saturday and Sunday, followed by Harriet Tubman’s great great grandniece reading about her Aunt Harriet during the Civil War.



Each summer, on the second weekend in June, the Smithfield Community Association and the Town of Smithfield hold the annual Civil War Weekend.

Peterboro invites everyone to visit and experience what life was like 150 years ago. After visiting the soldiers camps enjoy the music, drama, storytelling, and period craft demonstrations. Come for a day, wander through Confederate and Union camps and listen to the stories of the men and women. Watch them drill for the battle. Each afternoon, hear the sound of cannons booming and muskets cracking. The smoke of gun powder will rise as the north and south face off for a very realistic battle reenactment.

We especially would like to thank the 12th U.S. Infantry, a Civil War living history unit from Syracuse, NY. for organizing the reenactors. We could not hold this annual fundraising event without them.


The Civil War Weekend is organized and operated completely by volunteers. All profits from the weekend are used to continue the work of preserving and restoring the historic sites in Peterboro. Thank You.


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