Programs on historical Camp Delaware coming to area

FOSTORIA—Delaware, Ohio, sits a bit more than an hour's drive from Fostoria. Few Fostoria residents, however, may know of the city to the south's significance during the Civil War. An opportunity for the public to learn more about Ohio history will soon be available at Fostoria Junior/Senior High School. Representatives of the Delaware-based Community Arts Network will bring the organization's film "Camp Delaware" to the school's Wainwright Performing Arts Center on Feb. 7. A free presentation for students in grades 7 through 12, which will include the screening of segments of the film and a question-and-answer session, will take place during the school day. Later, from, 6 to 8:30 p.m., the entire film will be shown with a Q-and-A to follow. Tickets for the evening program are $15 each and may be purchased in advance online at www.communityartsnetwork.org or at the door. Funds raised by the program will go toward the Community Arts Network's scholarship fund. The scholarship is available to Ohio high school seniors who will be attending an Ohio college or university to pursue a degree in the performing arts. Scholarship applications may be found online at https://communityartsnetworkoh.org/scholarships/. Camp Delaware, along the banks of the Olentangy River, was developed as a training ground during the Civil War for African-American volunteers to train and subsequently serve in the United States Colored Troops. Even as the North fought for the emancipation of slaves, it deployed segregation by training Black men on one side of the river and white men on the other. The CAN's portrayal of the camp debuted with two live performances in 2024. A film developed from that, and it has been shown in Delaware, Columbus and Fremont, with other screenings scheduled to follow. "It's during Black History Month, in February," said Darnell Cousin, a Fostoria High School graduate who serves as Fostoria City Schools' attendance liaison, in regard to the collaboration with the CAN for the upcoming local programs. "Since I've been back in the school district, of course, we've done the Black history moments at school in the morning, but there's never been anything that was put out there to sort of celebrate or bring any emphasis to that. "I heard about this, and I thought, 'Maybe this is something we could do at the school.' I mentioned it to Courtney (Fleming, the district's director of human relations and public relations) and I talked to her and (Superintendent) Mr. (Jason) Longbrake about it. They put me in contact with the Community Arts Network." Fleming said hosting the programs made sense to her. "We are a pretty diverse community for being a small town, and I guess, in my mind, I said, 'Why not?'" she said. "I was trying to do it so there wasn't any cost to the school," Cousin said. "That's what I presented to (the CAN). I said, 'The only prohibitive thing might be cost.' And they said, 'Well, we can do it for free, for the school, as long as we're able to do a presentation for the public in the evening.' I'm like, 'Free? That's a great cost.' That's when I presented it to these guys." Francine Butler, executive director of the Community Arts Network, said the idea for going public with Camp Delaware's story came last year after she noticed a historical plaque in the city's downtown. "We were vaguely familiar with the troops from having watched the movie 'Glory,'" Butler said, referring to the 1989 film, which won three Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actor for Denzel Washington. "That was about the Massachusetts regiment. We went, 'Wow, there was a regiment here in Delaware, Ohio!.' "They trained just a bit down the road from here. And a lot of men went to Massachusetts because they couldn't enlist in Ohio at the time. It wasn't until later on in the war, when President (Abraham) Lincoln made the federal order that Black men could be enlisted, that Ohio could raise a regiment of Black men because the state constitution had forbade them from enlisting." Research continued into the practice of enlistment of Black men and the people involved, Butler said. "The more we researched, we said, 'How can we get this in front of the people?' People passed that plaque downtown all the time and maybe they thought Camp Delaware was a boys and girls summer camp or something like that," she said with a laugh. "So, it turned into a stage production, where we had Lincoln, we had (abolitionist) John Mercer Langston, we had the governors (William Dennison and David Tod) and we had men representing the troops who trained there, talking about their life at the camp, talking about the battles. And we used some actual letters of some of the medal of honor winners from that unit." In August, after videotaping a stage presentation in Marysville, additional tape was inserted, and a feature film was born. "We didn't set out to be filmmakers, but here we are," Butler said. The Fremont showing took place at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museums, and another is scheduled there for Feb. 2. "President Hayes, of course, was a Civil War general and he was aware of Camp Delaware," Butler said. "And we're trying to find out if, actually, ever, he visited the camp because then we would certainly put him in the story as well."Original music is included in the film, which, Butler said, was made with the purposes of "education and inspiration." She noted that Black soldiers from the Civil War onward often had to fight for a "double victory" over racism and the United States' enemies. But, Butler said, once Black men were enlisted to fight in the Civil War, many proved their worth beyond basic service. "I know this was depicted in the movie 'Glory'" she said. "At first, they were mostly doing fatigue duty — you know, building fortifications, running supplies. But then, when they were put into battles, they showed their bravery, they showed their skill and four from the unit in Delaware were awarded medals of honor for bravery in battle when their commanders fell and they stepped up. "... People have these historical treasures all around them — these stories, artifacts, land that has been designated. We all get jaded. We get in our cars and we drive and we see a marker, but we drive past, we don't stop and get out of the car and read it. But, we stopped and we read and now we're educating others."