HISTORIANS, NOT RE-ENACTORS.

But the First Brigade Band provided excellent music to drive Old Dixie down.

From 1861-'62 and again in 1864-'65, the Brodhead musicians played quick steps, or marches, to move soldiers and materiel, they serenaded troops in camp and at send-offs, and provided music at ceremonies, balls and Sunday worship services. They joined Gen. Sherman in Savannah, Ga., for the march through the Carolinas, playing "The Anvil Chorus" from Verdi's opera "Il Trovatore" as South Carolina's capital fell to the Union Army.

No Brodhead band members were killed or wounded, but many became ill, common in unsanitary military camps.

From that perspective, even the re-enactors are really historians, as there's little interest in re-enacting diphtheria.

Historians, re-enactors, or conservators of original instruments, the First Brigade Band is busy during the Sesquicentennial.