Civil War

On hot weekends when temperatures soar into the 80s and 90s, Northeast residents put on the standard dress - tank tops and shorts, swimming suits and string bikinis. Then, they head for the air conditioner, the pool or the shore. But not Elmer "Bud" Atkinson. He climbs into a scratchy, all-wool Civil War uniform and, ignoring the heat, spends his day in some of area's hottest spots. Atkinson, of Bustleton, is a re-enactor. He helps re-create events from the Civil War era for audiences ranging from schoolchildren to history buffs.

Holy Family College is offering three noncredit Civil War courses this fall at its Newtown Township campus on Route 332. A course on the Lincoln assassination will be offered from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on four Thursdays, Sept. 7 to 28. The course will examine the military, social and legal aspects of the assassination. The course costs $45. Students must register by Sept. 1. A six-session class on the Gettysburg campaign will run from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., on Thursdays, Oct. 5 through Nov. 9. The course will cover each day's activities in the battle and the reason for failure in command.

In the summer of 1936, friends and neighbors from a small village in Galicia gather for a picnic. As they drink toasts to the fledgling and fragile Spanish republic, two passing members of the Guardia Civil glare at them. Soon the glares will become clubs and bullets as civil war breaks out and the hopes of democracy are crushed by General Franco's forces. Jose Luis Cuerda's Butterfly - with a delicacy that lives up to the film's title - dissects the social, moral and political dynamics of that upheaval.

Soldiers in Union garb fired three rounds over the resting place of Perry Triplett yesterday as a drummer boy tapped slowly and solemnly. "He would have liked that," said Joseph Tappe, 82, who worked for many years with Triplett on projects that would bring recognition to LaMott, a section of Cheltenham Township where they lived and where many African American soldiers were trained during the Civil War. Yesterday, at Calvary Presbyterian Church...

The impact of the Civil War on the lives of Americans from the 1850s to the 1880s will be explored in a program Sunday at the headquarters of the Bristol Cultural and Historical Foundation. Dressed in period-style clothing, Herb and Sandy Kaufman of Huntingdon Valley will discuss the history and culture of the United States during the 19th century. The changing role of women, education, music, art, photography, newspapers and home furnishings are among the topics that will be covered.

"We don't know what we've got yet," said Danny Fruchter on Tuesday, the day before his theatrical treatment of John Brown's Body, Stephen Vincent Benet's epic poem about the Civil War, began performances at People's Light and Theatre Company. "We know we've got a lot of good stories and a lot of good music," Fruchter said. "We know we've got a picnic. We know we've got a square dance. We know we've got people singing. " What Fruchter, co-director of John Brown's Body, wasn't sure of was how all those components would come together.

The Alderfer Auction Company will offer a regimental banner from the Civil War era next week at a sale of fine art and decorative accessories. The two-day sale at the auction center in Hatfield is one of several over the next few days offering distinctive Americana. The banner was to have been presented by the citizenry of Philadelphia to the 3d Pennsylvania Cavalry in recognition of its military service, which by the war's end included 40 major engagements and the loss of 170 men. But a few days before the scheduled presentation in December 1863, a prominent member of the unit, Capt.

In the civil war of impeachment, there are no victors, just casualties. Now that the Senate has voted, and this sad and strange chapter of American history has come to an end, let's reflect, we hope for the final time, on what this partisan battle between a Democratic president and a Republican Congress has cost us as a nation. KILLED (POLITICALLY) IN ACTION Newt Gingrich: He rode the anti-Clinton tiger and ended up inside. Bill Clinton could not have survived without this enemy.

The man in the swallowtail coat contemplated a new American war. "I have feelings now that war is wrong, it's very wrong. . . . And Lincoln was probably almost as much a conscientious objector as I am," said dairy farmer Benjamin Kauffman, 65, of West Fallowfield. For the last six or seven years, Kauffman has been slipping into Abraham Lincoln's costume and character for the enjoyment of local folks. And in perfecting his impersonation, the farmer has learned a great deal about the Great Emancipator.

Along the highway that leads to Nicaragua's northern war zone, at a turnoff marked by a small, battered tank, lies one of this country's most incongruous tourist attractions - Hotel Selva Negra, a German-style vacation resort. With its rustic cabins adorned with small wooden hearts, its lavish flowered foliage and hiking trails, Selva Negra ("Black Forest" in Spanish) could easily be mistaken for a honeymooners' hostelry in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains or New York's Catskills.