A Union Of War Enthusiasts

The divisions of more than a century ago were recalled Saturday at the Northeast Regional Library through a Civil War art and history festival called The Blue and The Gray. Men and women in garb of the time played instruments in front of the library at Cottman Avenue and Oakland Street. Spectators watched videos of battlefield re-enactments, viewed slide presentations and received handouts dealing with the clash between Union and Confederate troops in the 1860s. They could also keep an image of what they might have looked like had they lived then: Stephen Schwartz of the Frankford Community Arts Cultural Program drew chalk portraits of people in period dress.