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Civil War 150 Legacy Project brings trove of artifacts

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December 27, 2011|By Steve Szkotak

When James R. Hosmer was going through his mother’s possessions in Kittery, Maine, after she died in 2005, he made an unusual discovery: dozens of cartes de visite, or small photographs that were carried by Union troops during the Civil War and served as an early version of dog tags.

He elected to donate the pictures to Maine historians to add to their collection of memorabilia from that crucial era in US history.

“The state archives was quite thrilled with it,’’ Hosmer said.

His contribution is but one of thousands being added to the troves of wartime letters, diaries, documents, and other mementos that state archivists from Maine to Georgia are building in anticipation of the sesquicentennial of the Civil War. Already the collections include a diary with a lifesaving bullet hole from Gettysburg and an intricate valentine crafted by a Confederate soldier for the wife he would never see again.

Much of the Civil War has been told through the eyes of battlefield and political leaders. But these additions are adding to the narrative, and providing insights to an era that violently wrenched a nation apart, leaving 600,000 dead.

In Virginia, archivists have borrowed from the popular PBS series “Antiques Roadshow,’’ traveling weekends throughout the state and asking residents to share family collections, which are scanned and added to the already vast collection at the Library of Virginia.

Started in September 2010, the Civil War 150 Legacy Project has collected 25,000 images.

“I think now we’re broadening the story to include everybody - not just a soldier, not a general or a president - just somebody who found themselves swept up in the biggest drama in American life,’’ said Edward Ayers, president of the University of Richmond and a Civil War expert. “That’s what’s so cool.’’

Virginians have been generous, knowing they can share their long-held mementos without surrendering them, said Laura Drake Davis and Renee Savits, the Library of Virginia archivists who have divided the state for their on-the-road collection campaign.

“They think someone can learn from them rather than just sitting in their cupboards,’’ Savits said of the family possessions. “And they’re proud to share their family’s experience.’’

Patricia Bangs heeded the call when a friend told her about the project. She had inherited 400 letters passed down through the years between Cecil A. Burleigh to his wife, Caroline, in Mount Carmel, Conn. “I felt this would be useful to researchers, a treasure to somebody,’’ said Bangs, who works for the library system in Fairfax, Va. In one letter, she said, Cecil writes of Union troops traveling from Connecticut to Washington, crowds cheering them along the way.