Browse Exhibits (1 total)
Voices from the War: Letters and Diaries from Soldiers, Surgeons, and Families of the American Civil War
This exhibit offers a highly personal perspective on the American Civil War through letters and diaries written by those who experienced it. Soldiers in combat on the battlefield, surgeons in hospitals, and wives managing plantations and homes wrote histories that reflect the pain, sacrifice, and survival of the time. Each object is a firsthand account of duty, adversity, and survival from one of America's most vicious internal conflicts.
William R. McMahan's diary, belonging to a Union soldier who rose to the rank of First Lieutenant, documents military battles and combat experiences in addition to noting of wounded soldiers he encountered.
Dr. John G. Perry, Union doctor, documents his arrival at Chesapeake Hospital, the care of both Union and Confederate soldiers, and an injury which nearly cost him dearly and cut his career short.
Elizabeth Ophelia Evans Johnson documents the trials of maintaining a plantation in Alabama while her husband served in the Confederate Army. The letters of Jasper Newton Smith to his wife, Elizabeth, present us with a front-row seat regarding the war's personal costs and emotional toll of separation.
Together, these letters bring history to life by keeping alive the voices of those who survived the war.