Facing battles at home and in the field

This summer, the Berkshires will mark the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War.

Great Barrington’s Museum of Civil Rights Pioneers at the W.E.B. Du Bois Center and the Sheffield Historical Society have opened exhibitions that offer inside looks at rare official documents of the period, as well as personal expressions from the home front.

At the Museum of Civil Rights Pioneers, “Fort Sumter: Harbinger of Black Freedom,” has opened — the first exhibition since the museum’s launch in April.

Museum founder and director Randy Weinstein said the exhibition contains many significant items and will remain open through August.

“This exhibition represents the lives of artifacts that matter,” Weinstein said. “What happened at Fort Sumter [S.C] was the catalyst for a war that ultimately ended slavery. Because of this, there are many interesting items here from the start of the war and its end at Appomattox Court House.”

One document is the eyewitness account by Capt. John McGowan of the supply ship Star of the West regarding the January 1861 Confederate attack on his vessel in Charleston Harbor. This action took place three months before Union soldiers returned fire from Fort Sumter after endless Southern sniping. McGowan’s commission as a Navy captain is also on view, signed by Abraham Lincoln.

Another item is Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s own copy of “Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie,” inscribed by its author, Gen. Abner Doubleday, who fired the first shot in defense of Fort Sumter in April 1861.

“Grant is such a pivotal figure in the defeat of the South,” Weinstein said. “Sumter and Grant are bookends, and without both, there would be no closure to slavery.”

To that end, Weinstein included an unpublished sketch by Ely Parker, Grant’s adjutant who later served as the first commissioner of Indian Affairs. The drawing depicts the Appomattox Court House surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee to Grant.

Official documents from the Bay State also grace the exhibition. In one, Massachusetts Gov. John Andrew discussed the unequal pay of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the first black regiment mustered in the North. Also on display are books from the library of Rev. Samuel Harrison, the noted Pittsfield minister who served as the 54th’s chaplain.

The Sheffield Historical Society has joined regional Civil War commemorations with the exhibition “Sheffield During the Civil War” at the Old Stone Store. Society administrator Barbara Dowling said that its purpose is to go beyond a typical Civil War narrative by focusing on the home front.

“So many people know about the battles, about [President] Lincoln, and about slavery,” Dowling said. “While we look at the Sheffield men who went off to war, we want to shed light on this intimate connection that the war had on those left behind. The toll wasn’t only in battle.”

The effects were everywhere. Sheffield, a town with a population of 2,621 at the start of the war, sent 269 of her sons into battle.

Twenty-nine died, 19 of disease. Other came home with maladies that were then spread locally.

“Pestilence was a greater killer than actual battle,” Dowling said. “Along with other interesting facts of that era, we try to capture that with an intimate look in letters to and from soldiers and their family members.”

The show includes a rare first-hand account of the infamous Confederate military prison, Andersonville, in Georgia. Many Union soldiers lost their lives there to famine and disease. Sheffield native Robert Hale Kellogg, who survived his incarceration and returned to the Berkshires, kept a diary that made it back with him.

Other collectibles include several Union uniforms, as well as up to 30 original music scores by Sheffield son George F. Root, composer of the war’s most popular ballad — “The Battle Cry of Freedom.”

“The Civil War was the most costly conflict in American history,” Dowling said. “But during the war there were many social and economic repercussions felt back home, and much of that became quite personal.

“Sheffield was only one small town that sent her boys off to keep the Union together. Our story can be told in every small town that did the same.”

If you go …

What: ‘Fort Sumter: Harbinger of Black Freedom’ exhibit

Where: Museum of Civil Rights Pioneers in the W.E.B. Du Bois Center, 684 S. Main St.,
Great Barrington

Hours: Weekends, 11 a.m.
to 4 p.m., through August

Information: (413) 644-9595, duboiscentergb.org.

 

What: ‘Sheffield During the Civil War’ exhibit

Where: Old Stone Store, 137 Main St., Route 7, Sheffield

Hours: On display through July 3. Open Saturdays 10 a.m.
to 2 p.m. and Sundays
11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Information: (413) 229-2694, www.sheffieldhistory.org