Key West The Newspaper

Visiting law professor, practicing criminal attorney, historian and Civil War reenactor Bernard Siler addressed some 130 middle school and 50 fifth grade students at Sigsbee Charter School on Friday. The lecture, titled “African-Americans in the Union Forces,” sponsored by the Friends of Fort Taylor and the Key West Art & Historical Society, focused on the experience of thousands of African-Americans who served in the Union Navy during the Civil War. Siler, who has been featured as an expert in documentaries about the military tribunal that tried the Lincoln assassination conspirators, also gave presentations at HOB Middle School and Fort Zachary Taylor during Civil War Heritage Days.