Riverside Wraps Up Year with Epic Civil War ReEnactment

By Elijah Sepich

On May 9th, 2026, the Riverside Club held its 

first ever Civil War reenactment.

Tutorial boys became Union and Confederate soldiers and paraded about the property in military fashion. The highlight of the day was the commemoration of the Battle of Gettysburg, which was a major turning point in the Civil War.

In the months prior to the big event, Tutorial boys completed many projects in preparation. The built tents, based off of the design of that era. They also made "Nerf" muskets and battled with them at the reenactment. (Multiple boys commented that the muskets were, by far, their favorite project of the year.

Each age group of Tutorial boys was assigned a book to read and later had to write letters based

on the story. The older boys read their letters out loud in their camps.

Attendees were encouraged to walk around both camps (Union and Confederate), where they were able to question the soldiers about their story and listen to live music played by several soldiers. The Third-year boys were assigned a specific character, mostly generals, and held strategy sessions about historic battles under a canopy at the front of each camp.

Three battles were fought at the Riverside event. The first was an historical reenactment of the Battle of Round Top. The second was held as a rematch, and the third used the entire property. The Union was victorious all three times. One soldier commented about the battle saying, "My favorite part was seeing the Union obliterate the Johnny Reb (the Confederates)."

Turncoat, Elisha Hunt Rhodes, played by Friday third-year Elijah Sepich, attempted to sell the Union battle plans to the Confederates at the beginning of the third battle. On his return journey, he was mortally wounded by his estor and died shortly after.

Confederate General, Robert E. Lee, played by Wednesday 

third year, Caleb Grice, gave the order to attack during Round Top. Lee commanded all of the Confederate armies during the Civil War, personally leading campaigns in and around Virginia.

The younger Tutorial boys were given tasks to do,  such as drilling, cooking, bullet making, and patrolling the camp. It made the whole experience feel realistic. 

One participant stated, “I was pleased that we were able to just loiter about the camp. It made it feel very historical.”