Living history program presents Civil War Day at Jenkins Plantation

GREEN BOTTOM, W.Va. -- The historic Jenkins Plantation Museum, located in the Green Bottom Wildlife Management Area of Cabell County, will host a Civil War Day from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 17.

The living history program is free and open to the public.

Spectators at the outdoor event will see re-enactors in period costume, including the Levisa Artillery, a Confederate cannon company from Louisa, Ky. The group will give demonstrations of camp life and conduct live cannon-firing demonstrations of a Civil War-era artillery unit.

Katherine Ferris of Charleston, will portray the living history character Mary Anna Morrison Jackson, wife of Confederate General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. Mary returned to her native North Carolina after Jackson's death. She organized and became the first president of Stonewall Jackson Chapter No. 220 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in Charlotte.

Special hands-on activities will help children explore Civil War life. Grace Nida, a tour guide for the Capitol Complex, will lead kids in wheat weaving to create "love" knots, which date back to ancient Scotland.

The historic Jenkins family home will be open for self-guided tours, and visitors can enjoy hot dogs, chips and drinks.

The Jenkins Plantation Museum is located on West Virginia Route 2 between Huntington and Point Pleasant. A facility of the West Virginia Division of Culture and History, the museum is the former home of Confederate Brigadier General Albert Gallatin Jenkins and also interprets the large slave plantation operated by the Jenkins family.

The 1835 home, built in the tradition of Tidewater, Va., is noteworthy for its architecture and was built by slaves between 1830 and 1835 for Jenkins' father, William. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and on the Civil War Discovery Trail. The museum's regular hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.

The West Virginia Division of Culture and History, an agency of the West Virginia Department of Education and the Arts, brings together the state's past, present and future through programs and services in the areas of archives and history, the arts, historic preservation and museums.

For more information about the division's programs, visit www.wvculwture.org.