Grant gives a history lesson at the library
Anthony Zuback of Cecil Township discusses Civil War strategy with Ulysses S. Grant impersonator Kenneth J. Serfass as he signs a book for him.
Ulysses S. Grant impersonator Kenneth J. Serfass gives a thumbs up after completing a program at the Peters Township Public Library.
Peters Township Library tech support director Peter Stamoolis mikes up Ulysses S. Grant impersonator Kenneth J. Serfass for his program.
More than 150 people got treated to a trip back into history July 30 at the Peters Township Public Library thanks to Ulysses S. Grant.
Well, it wasn’t really the former president and hero of the Civil War, but Grant re-enactor and impressionist, Kenneth J. Serfass of Gettysburg. Since 2009, Serfass has been traveling around the country giving thousands a living history lesson about what was like before and during the War Between the States.
Serfass, 49, who has also appeared as Grant on the History Channel and a reenactment episode of the HBO series “Family Tree,” said he became fascinated with the former president when he was in third grade.
“I was home sick with the chicken pox,” Serfass said before his Peters performance. “I had to do a book report and the teacher sent home a book on Grant. I read the whole book and wanted to read more.”
Following a 20-year stint in the U.S. Marines, where he served as a bandsman, Serfass moved to Gettysburg and began to pursue a full-time career as both a musician and a Grant reenactor.
“I am Grant full time,” said Serfass, who now has bookcases full of books about Grant. “He never lost a battle. He was not that kind of a man. I get to tell his story, talk about his reputation and share his life.” He averages more than 300 appearances as Grant a year.
Serfass’s hour-long presentation took place on the library’s first floor. Chairs were placed in a semi-circle and overflow chairs were placed around the railing on the second floor. To get the audience into an historic and nostalgic mood, the library staff hung red, white and blue bunting from the second floor.
Serfass made his entrance by coming down from the second floor on the library’s main stairway. He was dressed as Grant the solider, complete with military insignia on his uniform, a hat and riding boots.
The first thing Serfass – as Grant – told his audience was that he had no desire to seek a “higher” office and then began talking about his boyhood in Pt. Pleasant, Ohio. Grant, a son of a tanner, never wanted to join the family business.
“Growing up in a tannery was not pleasant,” said Serfass’ Grant, adding that as a child he had an affinity for horses. “As a compromise, I got to drive the tannery’s two-horse wagon. I was 8 at the time.”
Serfass’s Grant said he insisted on being called Ulysses, his middle name, even though his real first name was Hiram.
“My initials spelled HUG,” he told the audience, who laughed.
When he was 17, Serfass’s Grant was told by his father that he was going to attend West Point. He said the idea of going to West Point was appalling because the school was known for graduating future engineers. But, he went and ended up meeting and making life-long friends with the likes of William Tecumseh Sherman.
After West Point, he joined the U.S. Army and was stationed in Missouri, where he met his future wife, Julia Grant. They married in 1848.
He resigned from the military in 1854 because he was lonely for his family and had developed a drinking problem. He tried being a farmer, a rent collector and worked in the family’s tannery business. When the Civil War broke out in April 1861, he re-enlisted in the military and was promoted several times because of his previous experience. And in 1864, he was promoted by President Abraham Lincoln to Lieutenant General, a position that gave him command of all the Union armies.
“Lincoln was not sure I was going to run against him,” Serfass’s Grant said. “And he was not sure I was a drinker.”
Serfass ended his presentation with Robert E. Lee’s surrender at the Appomattox Court House in April 1865, which ended the war. Three years later, Grant was elected president.