Sunday, July 01, 2001

By Len Barcousky, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

HARRISBURG -- When you stand in the first gallery at the National Civil War Museum, images, artifacts and sounds surround and seem to flow around you.

Sit for a few minutes on a bench in front of three high-definition TV screens and you make the acquaintance of nine people from North and South -- slave and free, male and female, rich and poor -- who will guide you, via their personal stories, through the nation's bloodiest conflict.

	Multimedia Journal A special Post-Gazette Photo Journal on the National Civil War Museum includes MP3 audio clips with some of the images. Visit the following sites to download players for Windows or Mac machines to listen to the files: Real Player Microsoft Windows Media Player WinAMP

In a glass case behind you is the pen that Virginia Gov. Henry Wise used to sign the death warrant for abolitionist John Brown. In 1859, Brown was hanged for murder and treason at Harpers Ferry after trying to start a slave revolt. Abraham Lincoln's leather hatbox -- used by the 16th president during his campaign in 1860 -- rests behind glass in another corner.

From an adjoining room, the sounds of a Washington, D.C., slave auction alternate with a single voice singing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" and "Go Down, Moses."

Walk a few steps farther into the museum and find a first edition of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and a life-size photo of the scarred back of a slave.

From the next room you hear the sounds of artillery firing the opening shots of the Civil War as the Confederates attack Fort Sumter. In the center of that gallery, a life-size figure raises a Confederate flag above the ruins of the federal fort. From somewhere deeper in the two-level museum comes the cry of someone shouting "On to Richmond."

And so it goes through a dozen galleries and 27,000 square feet of exhibition space that seek to reflect and explain the causes and consequences of the bloodiest, costliest and most destructive war in American history.

"I think we have hit a home run here," said Chief Executive Officer George Hicks of his new museum. "Let me put it in Pittsburgh terms: I think we have hit a Bill Mazeroski-quality home run."

Since its official opening on Lincoln's birthday, the National Museum of the Civil War has drawn 45,000 visitors from 26 states and six foreign countries. Built on the eastern edge of Harrisburg, it occupies the high point in the city's Reservoir Park.

"I'm from the Jack Webb School of History: 'Just the facts,'" Hicks said during an interview in his office. "We're not cramming history down visitors' throats ... We're not beating our chests over the wealth of our collection ... We're trying to show history in three dimensions ... We're telling stories."

Hicks, himself a Virginian, had a great-grandfather who fought in the conflict for the South. And like the museum he directs, he enjoys telling stories.

		If you go ... The National Civil War Museum is on the eastern edge of Harrisburg in Reservoir Park. It is about 200 miles from Pittsburgh. Visitors from southwestern Pennsylvania can take the Pennsylvania Turnpike to Exit 19 and follow Route 283 north to Interstate 83 north. At Exit 30, go about 2.5 miles west on Route 22/Walnut Street, staying on Walnut Street when it splits from Route 22. Turn left at the Parkside Cafe into Reservoir Park. The museum and parking are at the top of the hill. The museum is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. It is closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is $7 for adults, $6 for seniors and $5 for students. A family pass is $20. The phone numbers are 717-260-1861 or 866-258-4729. The museum Web site is www.nationalcivil-warmuseum.org

He recalled a phone call he got from a curator who advised him to see what had turned up as staff members were unpacking and organizing boxes of artifacts. The curator wasn't certain what had been found, only that Hicks should come and see it himself.

"It was a glove that belonged to Stonewall Jackson," Hicks recalled. "It was one of the gauntlets he was wearing when he was shot."

Jackson was one of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's bravest and most brilliant commanders. His death -- ironically, the result of friendly fire -- in May 1863 during the Battle of Chancellorsville was a major blow to the South.

While the museum boasts the largest collection of items once belonging to Gen. George Pickett, best known as the commander of the doomed Confederate charge at Gettysburg, Hicks finds the possessions of ordinary soldiers equally meaningful.

"We have one letter, written in a hospital by a wounded soldier to his ma and pa," he said. "As you read the letter, you notice that his penmanship gets worse and finally stops.

"The letter had to be finished by a nurse, who writes the parents that their son had passed away."

Hicks says he wants the new museum to surprise visitors. As a result, the story of the Civil War unfolds in different ways in different rooms.

One gallery tries to give visitors some sense of the horror of pre-war slavery. The artifacts include metal neck collars, a cat-o'-nine-tails, handcuffs, tattered clothes and wooden shoes.

A recorded soundtrack and a dozen life-size -- and very lifelike -- mannequins show a tearful mother and frightened son on the auction block. Two young black men scowl from behind the bars of a jail cell.

In other galleries, the story is told on a larger scale. Hicks is particularly proud of several 10-by-14-foot electronic battle maps that trace troop movements during major Civil War campaigns. As blue and red lights flicker on and off -- each bulb representing thousands of men -- professor James I. Robertson Jr., recorded on videotape, talks about the battles.

Robertson taught Hicks history at Virginia Polytechnic, and, like his former student, he works to bring statistics to life. If the casualties at the 1862 Battle of Shiloh were laid shoulder to shoulder, Robertson says, they would have stretched for 4 1/2 miles.

	The statue "Moment of Mercy" by Terry Jones stands at the entrance to the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg.

One large gallery is devoted to the Battle of Gettysburg, and the multimedia displays may be too graphic for younger visitors. The artifacts include a gruesome demonstration of battlefield surgery and of the moment after a soldier is hit. The mix of media includes actual objects -- guns and swords -- used during the battle, excerpts from the film "Gettysburg" and a wall mural showing a tiny portion of Pickett's Charge.

Another display reports on the 200,000 black soldiers and sailors who fought for their own freedom. Organized into 135 infantry, six cavalry and 22 artillery regiments, their units had the lowest desertion rates and the highest mortality rates in the Union army.

Among other treasures is a pocket Bible that stopped a bullet and a cartridge box that changed sides twice. It was originally owned by a J.J. Raynor of Company E, 2nd Rhode Island Volunteers. Lost at Fredericksburg in 1862, it was picked up and used by a Confederate soldier until it was recovered at Gettysburg a year later.

In one gallery, visitors, using personal "soundsticks," can listen to a selection of popular songs from North and South while they look over a display of authentic army band instruments.

Some items are simply heart-breaking. There is the wooden marker for the grave of Daniel Cornier, who died in a Northern prison camp at age 58 on April 10, 1865. That was just one day after Gen. Lee surrendered his army at Appomattox Court House, Va.

There is even an example of early military marketing. A giant poster proclaims: "The Conscription Bill -- How to Avoid It." How you avoid the Union Army draft is by joining the U.S. Navy instead.

Visitors seemed uniformly impressed.

"It's wonderfully done," said William Quesenberry of Susquehanna, who was celebrating his birthday with a trip to the museum. "It's a beautiful location," added his wife, Carrie. "And you get a great overview of the war."

Civil War buff William C. Miller and his wife, Ann, drove 90 minutes from their home in Elinsport, Lycoming County, for a visit after reading about the opening in the Civil War Times. Miller's great-grandfather served with two Pennsylvania regiments during the War Between the States and fought at Gettysburg. "They do a nice, thorough job," he said of the museum.

It's a new museum and that means some problems -- a few labels don't match up with the objects next to them and a few artifacts are unlabeled. There is much to read, and the dimness in some galleries makes that difficult.

"But this would be great for schoolchildren," said David Taylor, a visitor from Urbana, Ill. "They would be enthralled by the stories and by the swords and guns," agreed his wife, Ruth.

The Taylors and their daughter, Karen, were visiting relatives in the Harrisburg area and were amazed to find the giant museum.

"It's just way more than I expected," Karen Taylor said.