If you see a group camped out with tents and a campfire near Windham High School someday soon, take a closer look.

It’s not the homeless or another “Occupy Maine” attempt. It’s Company A, 3rd Maine Regiment Volunteer Infantry, a nonprofit educational and living history organization dedicated to preserving the memory of Maine’s role in the Civil War.

The encampment during the June 23-24 weekend is part of Windham’s Summerfest.

The group will camp near the corner of Route 202 and Windham Center Road, on land purchased a few years ago by the Windham Historical Society. The historical society hopes to create a “Village Green” there for a living history center.

The public is welcome to visit. There will be a number of tents, including a cook’s tent and a surgeon’s tent.

The re-enactors will give hourly demonstrations and invite the public to “camp life” sessions where they fix meals, tell stories, clean weapons and educate the public on what daily life during the Civil War was like. In addition, a fife and drum corps will participate in the Summerfest parade.

“As far as we know, there’s never been a living history encampment in Windham,” said Dave Gowen, who has been part of the 3rd Maine reenactors for 18 years. “We encourage the public to come into the camp and ask questions and talk to us.”

It’s been 150 years since the Civil War and many historical societies and re-enacting groups have been marking the event that nearly cleaved a nation.

“We’ve been trying to do Civil War programs these last couple of years that have a Windham connection,” said Dave Tanguay, program chairman at Windham Historical Society. “We also want to recognize that this is the 275th anniversary of the town of Windham.”

Tanguay said the grassy 2.5-acre Village Green is an ideal setting for a Civil War encampment. But the grassy area of a traditional Civil War encampment would not be freshly mowed like we know today; Tanguay hopes a setting more like a natural hayfield is what the public will experience since it’s what the soldiers would have called home.

What was this “home” like? Pretty basic. Meals are cooked over an open fire.

“Basic rations for those on the march were hardtack, coffee, salt pork and dried vegetables,” Gowen said. “In Windham we’ll be doing more of a garrison-style encampment. Locally available foods like bacon and eggs would have been used by soldiers traveling through. The majority of the time, a soldier was in a camp like we’ll be re-enacting in Windham.”

Because the historical society has invited the 3rd Maine as a fundraiser toward its Village Green complex, admission to the encampment will be $5 a head, or $15 for a family.