This year, since we're in the US for at least half of the school year, we've been studying US history with the kids. Before we left Minnesota, Steve Ruud showed us what it would be like to be a Union soldier in the Civil War.
Little known fact about the Civil War: the city of Anoka, where we lived for the summer, sent the first volunteers to the Union Army. The governor of Minnesota happened to be in Washington, D.C. when Fort Sumter was fired on. He offered a regiment to the War Department, sent telegram to officials who happened to be meeting in Anoka when they received it. As they announced it, several men stepped forward to become the first volunteers.
