Atlanta History Center: Civil War Exhibit

It should be obvious by the number of posts dedicated to the Atlanta History Center that there is quite a bit to see and that it should potentially be considered an all day activity. As we headed over to the museum section of the history center we were starting to wind down a little, so we made one last stop at the Civil War exhibit.

If you know anything about Atlanta, even at the very least from having watched Gone With the Wind at some point in time, you'll know that the Civil War is an integral part of the city's historical identity and therefore it is no surprise that they have such an expansive exhibit in their history museum dedicated to presenting a somewhat chronological history of the Civil War, particularly focusing on aspects of their own side; the confederacy.

The exhibit is an effective combination of displays of genuine Civil War items, informational plaques and readings, and a series of informational videos that guide you through the history of the war. It's incredibly sobering to look at and think about all the terrible things that happened to the boys and men that fought in this war, with a particular emphasis on how the worst parts were related to the poor health care. Looking at the display of what they had available to treat wounds and infection I realized how similar it looked to some hospital and medical equipment I saw from the 1600's/1700's when I visited St. Augustine and was struck by how little advancement they had made in medicine over those, at least 150 years since that era.

However, I think the thing that was both the most moving and jarring was this display of personal items from the battlefield. It's easy to think about past historical wars on a general scale and see the numbers of dead associated with the war and momentarily think, 'wow, yeah that's a lot of people' but then move on and not really consider those people that suffered and passed. But, when you're forced to look at personal items of the people who were effected, particularly items of an intimate nature that were worn daily on their person, such as wedding rings and eyeglasses, it gives you pause to think about the individual lives that suffered through and were eventually ended by the war.

Another really, interesting and personal aspect that the exhibit goes into is the way the war effected the women who were left behind, both as their husbands fought in the war and potentially after their husbands were killed in the war. A lot of these women were left mourning and starving, unable to take care of their families due to both the loss of their bread winner and the unfortunate crash in southern supplies and economy related to the war.

 This lead into a room depicting the conditions on the battlegrounds for the men. Setting up trenches when they stopped and delivery of supplies to the soldiers through wagons. Mostly it talks about the terrible conditions faced by the soldiers in Georgia and how they were met with particularly large amounts of rain and wet weather leading to exhaustion and pestilence amongst the men.

After this point my camera battery died, but the exhibit was close to over anyways. We had reached the point in the war when it was clear that the south was going to lose. Their attempts to hold off the north through the election in hopes that Lincoln would not be re-elected and the war would subsequently be over were in vain. The war finished in 1865 with the south defeated and left to rebuild their entire economy post-war.

The exhibit is interesting and does have a slight southern perspective on it, although it is not overt I did have a slight after taste of it as you leave the exhibit.