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Two Richmond Civil War to the African-American experience or While the Civil War Sesquicentennial immigrants or the role of Jews." has drawn visitors to the museum, Museums Team up for Coleman said the Confederacy overall it has seen a sharp decline in new Center museum's collection will complement attendance through the years as the By STEVE SZKOTAK, (AP) her museum's mission of looking at Virginia Commonwealth University RICHMOND, Virginia — One the social and political stories of the Medical Center and related facilities museum has among its vast Civil War. have grown around it, enveloping Confederate-centric collection "The combination of that is what both buildings. Finding the museum Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson's sword makes this so exciting to us," she can be a challenge even for city and the flag that flew at Robert E. said. residents. Lee's headquarters. The other In a joint announcement, the The James River location for the new museum strives to tell the story of the museums said the new historic attraction, a little more than one mile through the eyes attraction in the former capital of the (1.6 kilometers) from Museum of the of Northerners and Southerners, secessionist Confederacy has yet to Confederacy, offers a more freed and enslaved blacks, soldiers be named, but $20 million has been expansive and accessible site. It's and civilians. committed to its construction. Ground also home to the National Park Now the Museum of the Confederacy will be broken in 2014, with an Service's Richmond Visitor Center, and the American Civil War Center expected opening the following year. and already is a popular destination are joining forces to build a $30 The new museum will be located for Civil War buffs. Concerts and million museum in Richmond with the along the James River, at the other events also draw city-dwellers goal of creating the top Civil War Tredegar Ironworks, where much of and tourists to the grassy grounds museum in the nation 150 years after the South's cannons were forged along the river. the deadliest conflict fought on U.S. during the war. It's also the home of soil from 1861-65 between the the Civil War Center. The museums The Last Civil War Northern states and the secessionist, said bringing together both pro-slavery Southern states. institutions will "further establish Veterans… Or Were The marriage of museums, Richmond as the foremost Civil War They? announced to The Associated Press, destination in the United States." Smithsonian Magazine, November 6, will meld the collection of At the new attraction, Coleman will 2013 Confederate battle flags, uniforms, share the title of CEO with Waite Albert Woolson loved the parades. weapons and other historic relics with Rawls, president of the Confederacy For Memorial Day in Duluth, a narrative-based museum that uses museum. It dates to 1890 and traces Minnesota, he rode in the biggest car bold, interactive exhibits and living the origins of much of its collections down the widest streets of his history events to relate its 360-degree to the men who fought for the South hometown. The city etched his name telling of the war. and their descendants, in particular in the Duluth Honor Roll, and he was What some might view as an unlikely Lee and other Southern military celebrated at conventions and partnership "makes so much sense" leaders. banquets across the North. Even the to Christy Coleman, president of the The Museum of the Confederacy president wrote him letters on his American Civil War Center, which claims the world's largest and most birthday. Because everyone said he opened in 2000 at a site where the comprehensive collection of was the last surviving member of the new museum will rise. Confederate artifacts: Grand Army of the Republic, a "That's part of the point," Coleman thousands of carefully preserved fraternal organization of Union said in an interview with The battle flags, dolls used to smuggle veterans once nearly half a million Associated Press. "They have an medicine to troops, Jackson's sword. strong, they erected a life-size statue incredible collection that is absolutely Only a fraction of the collection is on of him on the most hallowed ground Confederate strong, but there are a display at the museum's downtown of that entire horrible conflict— lot of artifacts that have not been able Richmond site, next to the former Gettysburg. to be fully explored or used to relate White House of the Confederacy. Though deaf and often ill, he was still spry enough that, even at 109 years

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THE “OLD LINER” NEWSLETTER of age, he could be polite and goes, young Albert, blue-eyed and page spread to the old Rebel, mannerly, always a gentleman. He blonde-haired, a mere five and a half including a photograph of Williams was especially fond of children and feet tall, took his father’s place. With propped up on his pillows, a large enjoyed visiting schools and exciting just a year left in the war, he enlisted Stars and Bars flag hanging on the the boys with stories of cannon and as a drummer boy with the 1st wall. An American Legion band steel and unbelievable courage on Minnesota Heavy Artillery Regiment, serenaded at his window, and he the fields around Chattanooga. The rolling his snare as they marched tapped his long, spindly fingers in boys called him “Grandpa Al.” south to Tennessee. time with “Old Soldiers Never Die.” But Woolson could be fussy. His But that had been long ago, more Like Woolson, Williams could be breakfast eggs had to be scrambled than 90 years past. Now Albert cantankerous. On his last birthday, and his bacon crisp. He continued to Woolson’s days were fading, the when he said he was 117, they smoke; he had probably lit up more muffled drum of his youth a softening served him his favorite barbecued than a thousand cigars just since he memory. At St. Luke’s Hospital in pork, though his daughter and a had hit the century mark. And no one Duluth, his health deteriorating, he nurse had to feed him. His bed was kept him from his half-ounce of would sometimes feel his old self, piled high with cards and telegrams, brandy before dinner. quoting Civil War verse or the but he could not read them. He could Gettysburg Address. But then on a hardly pick them up. “I’m tired of Saturday in late July, 1956, he staying here,” he complained in his slipped into a coma. Just before he son’s ear. The son smiled and told drifted off, he asked a nurse’s aide for visitors how they had hunted deer a dish of lemon sherbet. She gave together when his father was 101. him some soft candy too. As she shut “He rode a horse until he was 103,” the door she glanced back at her the son said. patient. “I thought he was looking very old,” she recalled. For a week he lay quietly in his hospital bed, awaiting death. Down in Houston, old Walter Washington Williams had sent Woolson a telegram congratulating him on turning 109. “Happy birthday greetings from Colonel Walter Williams,” the wire said. Williams was blind, nearly deaf, rail- thin, and confined to a bed in his daughter’s house. He had served as a Confederate forage master for Hood’s Brigade, they said, and now he was bound and determined to be the last on either side still alive when Albert Woolson, the last in blue in the twilight America’s great Civil War Centennial of his old age, still could hit the drums like a Death approaching, soon to usher out the last boy sounding the march to war. (Courtesy of commemoration began in 1961. “I’m of the Civil War era, Walter Williams lies near Whitman College and Northwest Archives, going to wait around until the others comatose in the back room of his daughter’s Walla Walla, Washington) are gone,” he said, “to see what Houston home in December 1958. Dr. Heyl G. Tebo, commander of the Houston chapter of happens.” the Sons of Confederate Veterans, presents His grandfather had served in the Williams had ridden in a parade too. him with a citation proclaiming him an honorary War of 1812, and when guns were He was named in presidential lifetime member of the organization. (Courtesy fired on Fort Sumter in 1861, his proclamations and tributes in the of the Houston Chronicle) father went off to fight for Lincoln. He press. Life magazine devoted a three- lost a leg and died. So, as the story

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Williams’ last public outing was in an Many who claimed to be well over The last veteran who said he fought Armed Forces Day parade in Houston 100 and survivors of that great war for the Union was Albert Woolson; in May 1959, when he rode in an air- were really imposters, some flat-out Walter Williams said he was the last conditioned ambulance. As he frauds. In truth they had been mere Confederate. One of them indeed passed the reviewing stand, he children and too young to march off to was a soldier, but one, according to struggled to raise his arm in salute. war in the early 1860s. Or they had the best evidence, was a fake. Then they took him home and put him not even been born. Yet as they grew back to bed. old, they fabricated stories about past And so the clock ticked down, not just heroic adventures and brazenly State Man on Albert Woolson and Walter applied for Civil War pensions during charged in firing of Williams, but for a whole generation, the long, lean years of the Great an entire era, the closing of a searing Depression. Some backdated their Civil War cannon chapter in American history: four birth dates. Some made up the replica at neighbor’s years of brutal civil war. Like the old names of comrades and commanding property soldiers, memories of the North and officers. Some lied to their friends and The Buffalo News, November 14, South and how they had splintered neighbors and to newspapers and 2013 and then remade America were government officials. Over the years, They were the shots heard ’round the slowly dying out too. The Grand Army some accepted so many accolades world. of the Republic closed its last local as Civil War veterans that they never Even newspapers in Britain are chapter. The Rebel yell fell silent. could muster the courage or the picking up the story of the By the start of the 1950s, about 65 of humility to own up to the truth, even Chautauqua County man accused of the blue and gray veterans were left; as they lay near death. Many ended dealing with a neighborly dispute by by 1955, just a half dozen. As their up believing their own fabrications. rattling nearby houses with blasts numbers dwindled they became Driven by money, ego, or a craving to from his Civil War replica cannon. artifacts of a shuttered era, curiosities belong to something grand and The barrage, heard miles away, of an ancient time, sepia-toned glorious, these men defrauded a eventually led to an arrest and figures still inhabiting a modern world nation. They especially dishonored confiscation of the cannon, which from their rocking chairs and oxygen those who had served, those who apparently was firing charges but no tents. They had gone to war with had been wounded, and above all cannon balls. Powder charges are rifles and sabers and in horse- those who had died. Many of them held in place by wads of paper or foil. mounted patrols. Now they seemed fooled their own families. One fooled “We had reports from people that had lost in a new American century that the White House. heard the cannon go off,” explained had endured two devastating world When Walter Williams died County Sheriff Joseph A. Gerace. wars fought with armored tank December 19, 1959, according to his Wednesday, after several days of the divisions, deadly mustard gas, and New York Times obituary, "a racket, sheriff’s deputies went to atomic bombs that fell from the sky. newspaper story said a check had Brian J. Malta’s home on Prosser Hill By the close of the 1950s, as the failed to find evidence to support the Road in Kiantone, south of nation was preparing for the 100th claim. Jamestown. anniversary of the Civil War, much of Based on the 1860 Census, he would Accused of firing a replica Civil War the pubic watched transfixed, marking have been eight years old at the time cannon toward a neighbor’s property, the passing of each of the final he said he had joined the the 52-year-old Malta was charged veterans, wondering who might be Confederate Army, eleven months with three misdemeanor counts of the last, wondering if any would make before the war ended in 1865. It also menacing and three violation counts it to the centennial, curious how was reported that the National of harassment. He is free on $2,500 anyone could live so long. Could Archives listed no Walter G. Williams bail. anyone be so old? as having served in the Confederate The arrest also prompted a headline Because it turns out that many of the Army from either his home state of in Daily Mail of London: “Man fired men were not so old after all. Mississippi or from Texas, where his Civil War cannon at his neighbors for family later settled. EIGHT DAYS during dispute.”

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As for the dispute that prompted the techniques that include environmental to keep the humidity and temperature blasts? sensors, high-quality scanners and steady. “It’s a civil matter,” Gerace said, specially built cases. To mark the 150th anniversary of declining to comment further on its Each of the five versions of the Lincoln’s speech, Cornell is putting nature. Gettysburg Address manuscript are the original on display as part of a It is not illegal to own a cannon in slightly different. Called the Bancroft special exhibit. But even when shown New York State, but this one is now copy, Cornell’s version has been to the public, the document is kept in being held as evidence by the through a lot. It was written out by low light — just enough for visitors to Sheriff’s Office, a first for Gerace in Lincoln months after he gave his read Lincoln’s neat cursive terms of confiscated weapons. original speech and given to historian handwriting without doing additional “I don’t recall, during my 34-year George Bancroft. It stayed in the damage to the paper. career, taking a cannon,” he said. Bancroft family for years before Advanced imaging technology also bouncing around between dealers has made it possible for libraries to and eventually ending up at Cornell. make extremely high-resolution digital How tech preserves the For a time, it had a cellophane cover. copies of historical documents. The Gettysburg Address But the dealer who made the cover Cornell scan is so good that they’ve by Becca Mitchell, WKTR.com, didn’t realize that cellophane was printed out a near replica of their November 19, 2013 actually damaging the prized Gettysburg address to occasionally On November 19, 1863, President document. Cellophane is very keep on display in place of the Abraham Lincoln commemorated a unstable, and within 10 to 15 years, original (with full disclosure, of Civil War battlefield in Gettysburg, the front of the document had course). Pennsylvania, by vowing that experienced severe darkening. A digital copy means that people who “government of the people, by the Luckily, other factors have helped the wouldn’t normally be able to make it people, for the people, shall not manuscript survive. to Cornell or the Library of Congress perish from the earth.” “We’re really fortunate that President to see the originals in person can One hundred and fifty years later, Lincoln used a great quality writing examine them up close online from document experts are going to great paper and his formulation of ink was anywhere. Researchers around the lengths to make sure that copies of good,” said Hamill. globe can do work from the digital his famous speech, handwritten by To keep the paper from deteriorating scans without worrying about Lincoln himself, hold up as well as the any further, Cornell carefully damaging a priceless artifact. words themselves. controlling its environment and limits The preservation technology is even Five original versions of Lincoln’s its exposure to light. (Those “No more elaborate at the Library of Gettysburg Address remain, and they Flash Photography” signs are not just Congress. are still used for research and study. a suggestion.) To protect their two copies of the But warm temperatures, light, Since the university’s copy is written Gettysburg Address, preservationists humidity and even oxygen are on both sides of a single sheet of there fabricated custom cases with enemies of old paper manuscripts. paper, they had to develop a special gaskets that purge all of the oxygen “There’s nothing that compares to the case that would allow people to view around the document and replace it original,” said Michele Hamill, a paper the whole text. Cornell created a with inert argon gas. When you take and photograph conservator at custom case made out of UV-ray away the oxygen, you take away the Cornell University, which has one of filtering plexiglass. potential of oxidation, which can the five copies of the speech. “We Most of the time, the document is erode the delicate original material. need to find a balance between kept in a secure storage vault that’s The argon encasements are also having these national treasures and been specially designed for rare used for many of the older documents wanting to make them widely materials. There’s almost no light in chronicling the founding of the United available.” the vault, and it has a steady States, which are written on delicate To make both possible, researchers temperature of 65 degrees parchment paper. have developed advanced Fahrenheit and 40% relative humidity. It’s likely that as students continue to preservation and replication Sensors constantly monitor the vault study “Four score and seven years

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THE “OLD LINER” NEWSLETTER ago,” the technology used to preserve Lincoln’s original documents will become even more advanced. Civil War painting going up for auction in NYC The Associated Press, Nov. 19, 2013 NEW YORK -- A painting by Sanford Robinson Gifford made while he served in the could bring as much as $5 million at auction. "Sunday Morning in the Camp of the Seventh Regiment near Washington, D.C., in May 1861" could set a new auction record for the Hudson River School artist on Dec. 5, Christie's auction house said. The presale estimate is $3 million to $5 million. The seller is The Union League Club in New York City, which acquired it directly from the artist in 1871. It is Photo: Christie's Images Ltd 2013. one of four major paintings Gifford Capitol, the Potomac River and the was needed to mark the burial of the made of the Civil War as a Union dead. That the final resting place of soldier. unfinished Washington Monument are visible in the background. the soldiers was in the North, The current auction record for a conveniently close to media outlets, Gifford work is $2.1 million, set at The Union League Club is selling the work to raise funds for improvements only added to the logic of a solemn Christie's in 2005 for his "Fire Island utterance for the ages. Accordingly, Beach." to its landmark Park Avenue clubhouse. It was founded in 1863 to an invitation went out to the person "Sunday Morning in the Camp of the most likely to give it. Seventh Regiment" hung in the Oval help preserve the Union. The club's contributions include helping erect the Edward Everett had spent his life Office of the White House when it preparing for this moment. If anyone was on loan there from 1976 to 1989. Statue of Liberty and the Lincoln Monument in Union Square. could put the battle into a broad The oil painting, measuring 16 inches historical context, it was he. His by 30 inches, has been exhibited at Members have included prominent civic, state and national leaders. immense erudition and his reputation The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the as a speaker set expectations very Corcoran Gallery and the Today it is a social club that focuses on public affairs. high for the address to come. As it Smithsonian American Art Museum. turned out, Americans were correct to Gifford served three tours of duty in assume that history would forever the Union Army as a member of the The Other Gettysburg remember the words spoken on that 8th Company of the 7th Regiment, Address day. But they were not to be his. As the New York State National Guard. By TED WIDMER, New York Times, we all know, another speaker stole The regiment was among the first November 19, 2013 the limelight, and what we now call President Abraham Lincoln called to Even before the address was given, the Gettysburg Address was close to defend the Capitol. Americans knew that a great speech the opposite of what Everett The painting depicts soldiers was coming, and that it would come prepared. It was barely an Address at gathered on a grassy field on the at Gettysburg. The battle had been so all; simply the musings of a speaker outskirts of Washington as a comprehensive, and its result so with no command of Greek history, clergyman preaches from a podium profound, that a lasting statement no polish on the stage, and barely a draped with the American flag. The

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THE “OLD LINER” NEWSLETTER speech at all – a mere exhalation of future. His speeches were Remembering his youth, so distant around 270 words. Everett’s first extraordinarily popular – on one from the universities of the East, he sentence, just clearing his throat, was occasion in New York, he spoke in an wrote, “If a straggler supposed to 19 percent of that – 52 words. By the auditorium that seated thousands, understand Latin, happened to time he was finished, about 2 hours and nevertheless, a mob stormed the sojourn in the neighborhood, he was later, he had spoken more than barricades, desperate to be admitted. looked upon as a wizard.” 13,000. But for all his achievement, Everett Lincoln and Everett had other The remembrance of the dead was had never had what Pericles had: a differences as well. Everett ran an essential theme for Everett, chance to memorialize the dead, slain against Lincoln in 1860, as the vice- already regarded as one of the great in a recent battle. That was the presidential nominee on the orators in American history. In greatest opportunity it was possible to Constitutional Union ticket, and as Massachusetts, where he grew up, imagine for a Greek orator, especially Lincoln came east to assume the memories of the Revolutionary if the battle in question had changed presidency, Everett made acidulous heroes were vivid, and the Puritan the course of the war, and removed a comments in his diary about his ancestors had never quite left the lethal threat to democracy. Suddenly, orations: “These speeches thus far stage. Everett remembered them all. the Civil War presented such a have been of the most ordinary kind, He remembered the Pilgrims at chance. destitute of everything, not merely of Plymouth, he remembered the Unsurprisingly, Everett was felicity and grace, but of common founders of Boston, he remembered approached to speak at Gettysburg. pertinence. He is evidently a person the veterans of Lexington, Concord He consented, and the date was set of very inferior cast of character, and Bunker Hill. In a memorable for November, to give him enough wholly unequal to the crisis.” triumph, he remembered Lafayette time to prepare something of an epic But over 1862 and 1863, they while Lafayette was still present and nature. The programs were printed, warmed to each other, and Everett accounted for, in 1825, during his and he set to work writing a speech gave many speeches in defense of triumphal return visit to the States. that would be memorized, first by the beleaguered president and the And he journeyed South, to him, so he could give it without notes, war effort. It only made sense, then, remember Jefferson and Madison and then by America’s that Everett would get top billing. (whom he dined with), and in schoolchildren. He immersed himself Lincoln understood, and promised particular, to remember Washington. in the Greeks. He consulted deeply that his own remarks would be “short, He remembered Washington many, with local historians and military short, short.” many times – in the late 1850s he experts who told him the details of the When it came time to deliver the gave his Washington speech 136 battle. He read Lee’s own account of Gettysburg Address, Everett gave a times, and in the process, helped the battle, printed in a Virginia brilliant performance, as all knew he raise nearly $100,000 to save Mount newspaper. would. That he was able to speak for Vernon. The very fact that we can Inevitably, he wrote something very two hours, without notes, was all the today remember Washington so long that displayed these prodigious more impressive for a kidney ailment viscerally, by going to his home, owes efforts. Dutifully, he submitted it to that often required him to urinate (a a lot to this son of the North. Lincoln ahead of time. Lincoln small tent had been placed discreetly Despite the competing claims of a laughed, according to a witness, nearby, and what he called a “pot-de- busy career, he obliged requests as Noah Brooks, and said, “Solid men of chambre” placed inside). often as possible. He lived deeply in Boston, make no long orations” – a A diarist, Benjamin French, wrote, the present, as governor of line attributed to Daniel Webster. “Mr. Everett was listened to with Massachusetts, congressman, Of course, Lincoln would be on the breathless silence by all that president of Harvard, minister to the bill as well. That was altogether fitting immense crowd, and he had his Court of St. James’s, secretary of and proper, as Lincoln would say. But audience in tears many times during state and senator. But he never no one expected a major utterance his masterly effort.” He described the stopped acting as America’s Oracle, from the president. That was not his battle in detail, leaving listeners rapt, channeling the spirits of the dead as role. He was not a historian. He could and in effect telling its history for the Americans raced headlong into the not read Greek, or even Latin. first time. Near the end of his

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THE “OLD LINER” NEWSLETTER remarks, he spoke movingly of Everett’s speech was soon forgotten. reconciliation between North and He would join the ranks of the dead South, a thought that the victory at only a year and a half later, on Jan. Gettysburg made more palatable. 15, 1865. (In his final speech, on Jan. Greece was in the air from the 9, 1865, he once again reached out moment he started, and his opening to the South, urging Bostonians to paragraphs went into numbing detail send food and supplies to the people of funerary rites in Athens. A reporter, of Savannah.) Fittingly, Lincoln John Russell Young, wrote, of his ordered that national obsequies be “antique courtly ways, fine keen eyes, observed for a fellow traveler who the voice of singular charm.” But he had grown closer to him through their added, ominously, “I felt as I looked shared experience at Gettysburg. at the orator, as if he was some Salutes were fired from government antique Greek statue, so … beautiful buildings, and the White House was … but so cold!” draped in mourning. And then Everett Still, Everett’s triumph seemed entered a long night of oblivion. complete. In his diary, Everett But perhaps it is not entirely right to recorded, “After I had done the remember Everett’s epic address as President pressed my hand with great an epic failure. To be sure, Lincoln fervor, and said “I am more than was triumphant at Gettysburg – over gratified. I am grateful to you.” the anti-democratic cause that had Then Lincoln stood up, spoke his 272 nearly prevailed with Lee’s army, and words, and sat down. in a way, over death itself. But not The rest, as they say, is history. over Everett. They had worked from Some prescient observers sensed the different points of origin toward a power of Lincoln’s achievement common goal – a point that was itself immediately. Everett was among democratic. And Everett’s lengthy them. The next day, he wrote to speech was necessary for Lincoln to Lincoln: “I should be glad, if I could have the freedom to write “short, flatter myself that I came as near to short short.” Like an old vaudeville the central idea of the occasion in two act, featuring performers of different hours, as you did in two minutes.” size and shape, the long and the Lincoln replied gracefully. short of it needed to go together. With time, and frequent reprintings, it became obvious that Lincoln had created a lapidary masterpiece, whose brevity was not the least of its merits. He had succeeded in giving meaning to the terrible sacrifice, and repurposing the United States. He had elevated democracy, and equality, as fundamental aims of the government. And he had changed the way we talk. His 272 words were short – mostly one and two-syllables, derived from Anglo-Saxon and Norman roots, the way that Americans actually spoke. Not a lot of Greek and Latin in there.

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