Travellers Rest Invites Public to Role-Play as Civil War Era Nashvillians

February 26, 2007– Travellers Rest will recreate Union-occupied Nashville on Saturday, April 21, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Participants in this role-playing game will learn how people lived and survived in Nashville during the Civil War.

After the South lost Nashville to the Union Army in 1862, city residents faced obstacles that disrupted their daily lives. The population swelled with Union troops, schools closed, men loyal to the Confederacy fled to escape arrest, enslaved African-Americans caught their first glimpse of emancipation, and women assumed roles as managers on plantations.

“We wanted Nashvillians to experience this period in our nation’s history, so we created this re-enactment game suitable for the entire family,” said Rob DeHart, curator at Travellers Rest. “Individuals will face the same challenges that existed in 1862.”

Stations throughout the Travellers Rest grounds will represent an aspect of life in Occupied Nashville. Families or individuals must perform tasks to earn a pass to the next station. Along the way, guests will encounter Union sentries, Confederate smugglers, bushwhackers, Army recruiters, and tradespeople who may or may not help their cause. At the final station a re-enactor playing Andrew Johnson, military governor of Union-occupied Tennessee, will ultimately determine each player’s fate.

Admission is $8 for adults, $5 for students (ages 6 to 18), under 6 free. For more information about Travellers Rest, please visit www.travellersrestplantation.org or call (866) 832-8197.

About Travellers Rest – Begun in 1799, Travellers Rest was originally the home of Judge John Overton and his descendents. Overton was one of Tennessee’s most influential citizens of the early 19th century, helping to found both Nashville and Memphis, and was a close personal friend of President Andrew Jackson. Nashville’s oldest house operated as a museum, Travellers Rest Plantation & Museum is a nonprofit organization that provides tours, special events and exhibits, educational programming and rental facilities for learners of all ages. The museum is located at 636 Farrell Parkway, just south of downtown Nashville off I-65.

SOURCE Travellers Rest