“Civil War Days”

I attended "Civil War Days" at the Ashocan Center last week. On my way from the parking lot, I passed a platoon of six Confederate Marines, then headed to the Pewter Shop, where a gathering was underway. Jay Ungar and Molly Mason were performing an instrumental duet for the crowd, which sat on rustic benches and a few chairs. In a corner of the room I recognized Abraham Lincoln, erect in a tall black hat. Next to him sat Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States of America, in his trademark gray goatee. The two of them eerily resembled a contented married couple. In the back of the room stood the slightly slovenly Ulysses S. Grant. Jay and Molly launched into "The Faded Coat of Blue":

No more the bugle calls the weary one,

Rest, noble spirits, in their graves unknown;

For we’ll find you and know you among the good and true,

Where a robe of white is given for a faded coat of blue.

Lincoln sat perfectly still, conscious of the tragic weight of death on his shoulders.