Press Release - Thursday, November 03, 2005
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1830s MILITIA MUSTER NOVEMBER 5 - 6 AT LINCOLN'S NEW SALEM
PETERSBURG, IL - An 1830s militia muster, reminiscent of the one during which Abraham Lincoln volunteered for military service, will be held Saturday and Sunday, November 5 and 6 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site near Petersburg. The event is free and open to the public.
The muster will feature an election of officers, signing up for military service, company drills, musket firing demonstrations, and a flag retreat ceremony each day.
Lincoln volunteered along with other residents of New Salem in 1832 for a thirty-day hitch fighting Indians during the Black Hawk War. He mustered in at Richmond, nine miles south of New Salem, where to his own surprise, as he later recalled, he was elected captain, an honor that gave him "much satisfaction" and his first opportunity to lead men. Many New Salem area friends, including Sergeant Jack Armstrong, belonged to his company.
Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site, administered by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, is a reconstruction of the 1830s log village where Abraham Lincoln lived for six years. It is located along Route 97 about two miles south of Petersburg and 20 miles northwest of Springfield, and is open daily for free public tours.
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