SIDNEY — The 73rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment Band will return to Sidney for the Civil War Living History Weekend. This year’s event is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 18, Saturday, Sept. 19, and Sunday, Sept. 20.
This will mark the band’s third appearance at Sidney’s Civil War Living History Weekend.
The band performed at the inaugural event in 2016, and returned in 2018.
Some of the members of the 73rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment Band will be on hand on Friday to explain the importance of music for army units, both Union and Confederate, during the Civil War. If all goes well and the pandemic does not raise its ugly head, Friday’s program will be attended by students from Shelby County’s schools.
On Saturday morning, the band will perform at 10 a.m. in downtown Sidney for the rededication of the statue of Sgt. Baker. Baker is the statue that sits in the niche of the Monumental Building overlooking the Shelby County Court House.
The band will play in concert at 8:30 p.m. Saturday evening in the Geib Pavilion located at Baumgardner Basin in Tawawa Park. Concert goers are invited to bring lawn chairs and socially distance.
The band will also provide limited musical selections Sunday morning, Sept. 20 following the period Catholic Mass and during the Presbyterian worship service. They will play briefly during a memorial service for Jim O’Moore, a long-time reenactor who died Dec. 23, 2019, and who participated in both previous Sidney events.
The 73rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment Band, in its current form, was established in 2011. The organization exists for the purpose of enriching and entertaining the modern public with historically authentic music and playing techniques contemporary to the time period of the War of the Rebellion.
The music presented by the 73rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment Band is presented, whenever possible, through performance with instrumentation typical of authentic military regimental brass bands of the Civil War era. Directed by John Huffman Jr., the 73rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment Band is based in Waverly. Members of the band hail from throughout Ohio.
