Civil War church service
will be part of Veterans Day observance

On Sunday, November 12 at the 10 a.m. service, Ogden Presbyterian Church will observe Veterans Day with a Civil War Church Service led by Benedict Maryniak, of Lancaster, NY. He and his wife, Cathy Curley, have been doing Civil War re-enactments for the past 20 years.

Maryniak has had small parts in the ABC TV mini-series, "North-South, Book Two" and in Ted Turner's film about Gettysburg. He has just signed an agreement to write a book about army chaplains in the Union forces, in collaboration with Dr. "Bud" Robertson of Virginia Polytech and William C. Davis, both of whom have many famous books to their credit.

Maryniak has been portraying Chaplain Philos G. Cook (pronounced "fy-low") for 15 years. Cook was a Presbyterian minister with Buffalo's First Church, then on Main Street in the city, now near Kleinhans Music Hall. His oldest boy, George, was in the 21st NYV and wounded at Antietam in September of 1862. Though 55 and settled in the city with a large family and his wife, Clarissa, Philos went to see if it was bad (it wasn't), and was appalled by the wickedness and lewdness of the army camps. A young man who had just become a colonel of the 94th NY Regiment offered Cook its chaplaincy because Cook had been his Sunday School teacher and he trusted him. Cook thought the soldiers would be lost to Satan, even if they won the war, unless ministers did something, so he accepted the commission.

Maryniak says he has always been interested in New York history and learned about the Civil War by exploring New York's participation in the war. New York sent 500,000 men into the army and navy. Back then you did not enlist at an army recruiting office, but you responded to a call for volunteers by some well-known local man who was seeking to raise a company or a regiment. A full strength infantry regiment in the Civil War was a thousand men. Local men would form a company. Local companies from the town or county would form a regiment and that unit would enter the army as a group and fight together. Five infantry regiments were made up of volunteers from Monroe County - 13th NY, 105th NY, 108th NY, 149th NY, and 188th NY. The 4th and 14th NY Regiments of Heavy Artillery also came from Monroe, as did the 8th and 22nd Regiments of NY Cavalry. Each regiment had two non-combatant officers who helped the men be good soldiers, the regimental surgeon and the chaplain.

At the Ogden Presbyterian service, the Maryniaks, as well as several other Civil War re-enactors, will dress in the clothing of the Civil War period. He will use the actual sermon that was preached during 1863 by the chaplain of the 71st NY Regiment. He'll also use the language of that time, along with the prayers and hymns from that era. The Ogden Presbyterian Senior Choir will be singing an anthem from the Civil War period as well. The public is invited to join in worship at the church, 2400 South Union Street, Spencerport.