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| Susan Geertsen | | Reenactors in an Officers' Quarters scene in the 2006 Candlelight Tour |
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For 26 years, the Candlelight Tour has been part of a holiday tradition at Fort Scott. That holiday tradition includes Home for the Holidays, trolley tours of neighborhoods decorated with Christmas lights, and shopping at antique stores. But the highlight has long been the air of enchantment created by the light of candle lanterns and the drama of stories of yesteryear told in Fort Scott’s Candlelight Tour.
Each year the National Park Service presents this event, bringing new stories to life in order to keep the tour fresh. This year’s Candlelight Tour will explore the concept of freedom and what it meant to soldiers and citizens of Fort Scott in the Civil War era.
Echoed by Patrick Henry’s declaration of “Give me liberty or give me death”, freedom has always been something that Americans have held dear. To Americans at Fort Scott in the mid nineteenth century, competing visions of freedom created conflict at Fort Scott over the issue of slavery. For those who owned slaves, freedom meant being able to choose where to live with their slaves and living lives free from interference by those who disapproved. To free soilers, freedom meant free enterprise, not competing with slave labor, and freedom to work virgin soil not exhausted by plantation agriculture. To abolitionists, freedom meant the right of African-Americans to self-determination and the absence of what they considered a blot on American society. And of course, to the slaves, freedom meant making their own choices, working for their own advancement, and obtaining equality. All definitions of freedom converged on Kansas in the mid nineteenth century.
Powerfully acted scenes bring these diverse meanings of freedom to life. Scene one sets an 1840s officer at Fort Scott at odds with the post surgeon and a landowner from Missouri as they debate the issue of slavery. The next two scenes recreate a confrontation between Pro Slavery and Free State settlers at Fort Scott in 1858. One scene depicts the plans of Border Ruffians determined to drive Free State men from town, while the next scene illustrates the courage of those Free State men, equally determined to stand their ground and remain free from the tyranny of violence. A fourth scene shows the women of Fort Scott, resolute in their desire to keep their homes safe from the growing fury being unleashed by these opposing forces.
Scene five will portray the Ladies Hospital Aide Society of Fort Scott. The women portrayed in this scene by site volunteers actually lived in Fort Scott in 1864. “Aunt Janey” Smith is one such woman. According to a local Fort Scott genealogist, Aunt Janey, as she was so lovingly known, was a mother to all the soldiers who entered the hospital. Mrs. Smith was a Scottish immigrant, renowned for her kindness to the sick and dying men. The post hospital at Fort Scott was the last place a wounded man wanted to be and it was the last stop for most men. The Ladies Hospital Aide society was an important force that supported troops, aided in the comfort of the sick and dying, provided invaluable services to the families of the wounded as well as providing shirts, trousers, and clean bandages to the men of the hospital, thus supporting the freedom being fought for by Union soldiers.
The final scene of this year’s candlelight tour shows a definitive moment in the cause of freedom, where former slaves have become soldiers in the Union Army by joining the First Kansas Colored Infantry Regiment. Mustered in on the grounds of the old fort, the First Kansas was the first African-American regiment from a Union state to see combat, predating even the 54th Massachusetts of “Glory” fame. This scene depicts the bravery, determination, and growing anticipation of these soldiers being given the opportunity to fight in the cause of liberty and equality.
The sight of the fort, lit by candlelight glistening off the sometimes snow-frosted ground, will warm your heart and the stories of courage and freedom from 150 years ago will inspire you this holiday season. If you have never been, it is worth the visit. If you haven’t been recently, come again. If you come every year, continue the tradition. You won’t be disappointed.
The Fort Scott Candlelight Tour will be held December 7 and 8, 2007. Tickets, which must be purchased in advance, are $7.00 each. Children 5 and under are free. For reservations or for more information, call 620-223-0310 or email our interpretive staff.
Candlelight Tour Ticket Policy
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