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Historic Highway
Show Me the Civil War
New Museum to Showcase Missouri's Role in the War Between the States
By John Gifford
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The Missouri Civil War Museum at historic Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis.
Photo credit: Photo courtesy of the Missouri Civil War Museum. |
Many would be interested to know that Missouri , with more than 1,100 battles and skirmishes on record, was the site of more U.S. Civil War engagements than any state except Virginia and Tennessee . But mere interest may give way to sheer surprise in learning that it was also the location of the first general (Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon) to die in combat during the Civil War; the site of the first major Civil War battle west of the Mississippi River (Wilson's Creek); home to the battle (Island Mound) featuring the first African-American soldiers to fight in the Civil War; and the location of the first Civil War battle fought by Ulysses S. Grant (Belmont). 1
Facts such as these give rise to expressions of wonder and statements of, Well, I'll be !Or maybe, Show me is more likely, which is what the new Missouri Civil War Museum in St. Louis seeks to do when it opens its doors to the public in 2012.
A 501(c)(3) educational institution, the Missouri Civil War Museum was organized in 2002. The following year, restoration work began on the 1905 Post Exchange and Gymnasium Building at the Jefferson Barracks Historic Site in St. Louis , which houses the museum.
Gary Stevens, marketing and public relations director for the museum, said that this building was chosen, in part, because it presented an opportunity to save an historic structure from demolition.
"The Post Exchange and Gymnasium Building housed a basketball court, an elevated running track, two-lane bowling alley, and an indoor pistol range," he said. "The U.S. Army used this building until the end of World War II, and then abandoned it in 1946. It had been in a state of disrepair until the museum acquired it in 2002."
Working from copies of the structure's original blueprints, renovators have focused on preserving its historic integrity by utilizing authentic designs and materials, and by retrofitting improvements around the building's original details. Along with repairs to the roof, new crown molding and entry columns–painstakingly crafted to replicate the originals–have been added, along with elegant stained-glass windows at the center of the grand staircase.
The Missouri Civil War Museum is funded by more than one million dollars in private donations and through grants from the National Trust for Historic Preservation ($2,100) and the St. Louis County Port Authority's Community Reinvestment Act ($500,000).
But the preservation aspect of the project wasn't the only reason officials chose to locate the museum here. Jefferson Barracks, itself, was appealing for its military history.
Founded in 1826 as the U.S. Army's "Infantry School of Practice," and named in honor of President Thomas Jefferson, who died that same year, Jefferson Barracks became the Army's first permanent base west of the Mississippi River. 2 By the 1840s, it was the largest military establishment in the United States , and is today the nation's oldest active military installation west of the Mississippi. 3.4. Some 220 Civil War generals–among them, Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, George B. McClellan, and John Sedgwick for the Union, and Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, J.E.B. Stuart, and George Pickett for the Confederate States of America–served here at some point during their pre-war careers. Three future United States Presidents saw duty at Jefferson Barracks, including the aforementioned Ulysses S. Grant, as well as Zachary Taylor and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Additionally, future Confederate President, Jefferson Davis, and Sauk leader, Chief Black Hawk, spent time at the base in the 1830s.
"Chief Black Hawk was jailed here by Jefferson Davis," said Stevens. "Legend has it that the two became friends."
Standing on the third floor of the old Post Exchange and looking out over the grassy parade grounds, which separate the museum from the Mississippi River and the state of Illinois, hazy and hilly in the distance, one is in awe at the number of legendary and influential Americans whom have walked these very grounds. Jefferson Barracks is its own chapter in the ongoing story of United States history, and its contributions to America , and the world, continue.
"Soldiers from Jefferson Barracks have participated in virtually every major U.S. conflict, from the Black Hawk War in 1832 to the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan," Stevens said. "That's quite a legacy."
With its strategic location along railroad lines and the Mississippi River , Jefferson Barracks functioned as a Union supply depot, training base, and hospital during the Civil War. Together with the city of St. Louis , which benefited from the presence of the base and from the support of its German population, the area remained a Union stronghold in a state with both Northern and Southern sympathizers.
"St. Louis was the big hotbed of Union support in the state of Missouri," Stevens said. "One reason for that was the presence of all of the German immigrants in St. Louis who were very anti-slavery."
Though it had both Union and Confederate governments during the war, Missouri was largely under Federal control after 1862. 5 Despite this, or perhaps because of it, guerrilla bands concentrated their efforts on harassing Union troops and raiding communities of Northern supporters until the end of the war.6 These guerrilla outfits represent one of the hallmarks of the Civil War in Missouri, and the raids they conducted allowed men like Frank and Jesse James to hone the hit-and-run tactics that would make them famous in the years following the war.
While most states saw their share of guerrilla (partisan) warfare, Professor of History and Civil War authority, William C. Davis, from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, says that Missouri (and Kansas) had more than other states because there had been guerrilla warfare going on since the days of Bleeding Kansas in 1854.
"These were areas largely settled by immigrants from the South, and when one supported the Union or free-state politics, and the other didn't, it led to blood feuds between friends and even families," said Professor Davis. "Consequently, for some of the bloodiest guerrillas like Quantrill, Anderson, Todd, and others, the Civil War was just an excuse to pursue old vendettas."
The Missouri Civil War Museum plans to feature an exhibit on the guerrillas, along with artifacts such as swords, flags, uniforms, cannonballs and bullets, Civil War stamps and currency, musical instruments, and what may be the Midwest 's largest collection of Civil War medical instruments.
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First edition (1852) volumes of Uncle Tom's Cabin (Vols. 1 & 2) by Harriet Beecher Stowe - part of the Missouri Civil War Museum collection.
Photo courtesy Missouri Civil War Museum.
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Some of the highlights of the museum's collection include a pair of Civil War Medals of Honor, first-edition (1852) copies of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin , and a pair of velvet parlor chairs once owned by Mary Todd Lincoln.
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| A pair of elegant green velvet parlor chairs owned by Mary Todd Lincoln - part of the Missouri Civil War Museum collection. Photo courtesy of the Missouri Civil War Museum. |
The museum plans exhibits dedicated to both the pre- and post-war periods, as well as individual galleries for each year of the war. Additional galleries will focus on Civil War medicine, Jefferson Barracks and its history, and a special Civil War in Popular Culture exhibit, honoring the war's influence on film and literature. Stevens said this gallery will display, among other relics, costumes from films like Gone with the Wind and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon .
The addition of the Missouri Civil War Studies Center—a 6,000-square-foot research library, which will be located next door to the museum in the 1918 Post Exchange Building—is planned for late 2012. This library will house thousands of books, documents, records, photographs, and other items relating to Missouri Civil War soldiers and their units. Already, approximately 3,000 volumes have been amassed, awaiting the Center's debut, but Stevens says this number is growing.
"Our goal is to be the largest Civil War library in the state," he said.
This seems a lofty goal, but likely, considering the generous and considerable support the Missouri Civil War Museum has received from donors and others around the country. And success means not only having the state's largest Civil War library, but so many thousands of ways to satisfy those who want to see for themselves the artifacts that tell Missouri's Civil War story.
1. Source: Missouri Civil War Museum
2. Source: http://www.cem.va.gov/CEMs/nchp/jeffersonbarracks.asp
3 Source: http://www.cem.va.gov/CEMs/nchp/jeffersonbarracks.asp
4 Source: http://www.mcwm.org/history_jbtimeline.html
5.
Source: The Gunfighters
6.
Source: The Gunfighters
John Gifford (www.john-gifford.net) is a professional writer providing marketing communications and Web copywriting services to businesses of all sizes. He's also a freelance travel writer and has written recently for Birmingham Magazine , Evansville Living , and The St. Louis Post-Dispatch .
References
1. Missouri Civil War Museum . (2010). Missouri Civil War Firsts . Media Kit.
2. United States Department of Veterans Affairs. (2010). Jefferson Barracks National
Cemetery (Data file). Retrieved from
http://www.cem.va.gov/CEMs/nchp/jeffersonbarracks.asp
3. Missouri Civil War Museum . (2010). Jefferson Barracks Historic Timeline (Data file).
Retrieved from http://www.mcwm.org/history_jbtimeline.html
4. Trachtman, P. (1974). The Gunfighters . Alexandria , VA : Time Life Books.
Source: Missouri Civil War Museum
Source: http://www.cem.va.gov/CEMs/nchp/jeffersonbarracks.asp
3 Source: http://www.cem.va.gov/CEMs/nchp/jeffersonbarracks.asp
4 Source: http://www.mcwm.org/history_jbtimeline.html
Source: The Gunfighters
Source: The Gunfighters
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