Memory

Reunion of Confederate and Federal veterans at Gettysburg, 1913. By International News Service, https://loc.gov.resource/ppmsca.58372/

Perhaps as a measure of the Civil War’s trauma, our memories for no other period of America’s history differ more widely. Scholars too have told …

… the Civil War story in many conflicting ways. Even in the past ten years, we have witnessed a dramatic evolution on how people choose to remember those difficult times before, during, and after the Civil War.

Early in our planning, we embarked on a project to collect the family memories that have filtered down through the decades about the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. We do not intend to censor anyone’s memories of specific events; we choose to let their words and memories speak for themselves. Some of the stories are painful. We have vetted them for accuracy (dates and locations, for example) and have attempted to excise any speculation on motives that cannot be verified. While we encourage all people to share their family stories, certainly including people of color, we recognize that many narratives are missing due to limited literacy, faulty record keeping, missing grave markers, distrust of official archives, and for some a reluctance to delve deeply into the harsh struggles of their ancestors. Utilizing the most recent scholarship and research of the renowned historians who advise the History Center, what is presented on the floor of the Center will represent a true and complete telling of the collective memories from multiple perspectives.

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