Eighth-grade students from Lee Burneson Middle School in Westlake re-enact the Battle of Gettysburg during the annual Blue and Gray Ball Friday evening. (West Life photo by Larry Bennet)

Lee Burneson students recall turmoil of Civil War
By Kevin Kelley
Westlake
Published May 23, 2007

For the 17th consecutive year, eighth-grade boys at Lee Burneson Middle School dressed as Union or Confederate soldiers while girls dressed as proper ladies of the era Friday evening.

The occasion was the Blue and Gray Ball, a Lee Burneson tradition in which eighth-graders perform waltzes and reels of the 19th Century.

Students spent several weeks studying aspects of the Civil War in various classroom subjects and doing research projects that are displayed throughout the school. On May 15, Lee Burneson became Fort Lee Burneson as several area Civil War re-enactors and history experts spoke to students about the bloody conflict during an encampment.

Former Lee Burneson English teacher Jon Thompson, who retired last year, started the Civil War traditions at the school in 1991. This year, eighth-grade history teacher Brad Behrendt, who has helped out at all previous encampments and balls, was in charge.

The Civil War is an appropriate topic for intense study, because it is “the defining moment in our country,” Behrendt said.

“Everything in our country’s history leads up to the Civil War,” he said, “and everything that’s come since is a consequence of it.”

Students give their all to the Civil War activities, Behrendt said, including the dressing in period costumes and dancing.

“It’s something that they’ve seen in the hallways as eighth-graders and are curious about,” Behrendt said.

During the Blue and Gray Ball, students perform “Walls,” a play written by Thompson that tells the story of two sons who fight in the war — one for the North, the other for the South. The sons learn through their experience of war that family and friends are more important than anything.

The study of the Civil War is preparation for the eighth-graders’ June field trip to Washington, D.C., the site of the Battle of Gettysburg, and historic Harper’s Ferry, W. Va., the site of John Brown’s abolitionist uprising.