My twin sister Ruth and I became interested in the Civil War when we were 11 years old. I read biographies on Gen. Robert E. Lee and Gen. U. S. Grant, and then, since I liked the two generals, I made them out of clay (we were always making things out of modeling clay). Because we have always had cats as pets and “catified” everything (even when playing Robin Hood outside as kids), my clay Lee and Grant came out as cats. We became interested in the Civil War and kept reading books…and kept making Civil War cats. A few years into it, we began making dioramas. Now, 29 years later, we own a museum in Gettysburg of the dioramas that we have made (Civil War Tails at the Homestead Diorama Museum).
Ruth and I were homeschooled, so Mom would buy books on all sorts of topics. Two of those books were the biographies that sparked our interest. Because we were homeschooled, we could let our interest blossom, and Mom and Dad were supportive in buying us 600+ Civil War books, taking us to reenactments, and taking us to battlefields.
I think the first time that the importance of battlefield preservation really struck me was in 1999, when our dad took us on a trip through the South to visit Civil War sites (the impetus being to visit Andersonville, where our great-great-grandfather’s brother died. Our dad is the third of five generations named after Pvt. Luke Brown [8th PA Cav’y]). One of the battlefields we visited was Fredericksburg. As I stood at the stone wall on Marye’s Heights, I gazed off across… backyards. Houses. Swing sets. I couldn’t see the river. I had no idea where the town would have been (roughly) during the battle. I had no reference points, and since I hadn’t read in-depth about Fredericksburg, I couldn’t visualize how far away the river and other features might be. It really struck me how fortunate we are to have Gettysburg preserved. Pickett’s Charge has always been my favorite part of my favorite battle, and when I visit the Angle, I can see exactly where the tree line and Confederate line were because…the trees are still there.
In college, I found the CWPT and joined it. Of course, with charities and non-profits, donors are always looking to see low overhead, maximum good done with each dollar, etc. CWPT has never disappointed. It is one of the few organizations that I’ve never had to wonder how much of each dollar is really going to preserving the land. Now, 20+ years later, I don’t donate as much as I would like (due to finances), but Ruth and I still try, because it is important work.
I’m glad to see ABT working to get students interested in history by visiting battlefields and engaging with the history. We hope to do the same with our museum, and with 9 years of operation under our belts, we are seeing kids who are now history buffs because they visited our museum. But I think one important aspect of our dioramas is that we can point out landmarks and locations that people saw or will see when they tour the battlefield. We can say, “That’s the Copse of Trees; it has a black iron fence around it now.” “Did you see the High Water Mark monument? It looks like a big book? It would be in that corner of the diorama.” “Do you remember the castle-like monument for the New York regiments? That’s here on the diorama.” And, since our scenes are to-scale and show a specific point in time, people can visualize the action, and then take it with them onto the field. Countless people have commented that after seeing our dioramas, now they can visualize what they learned about on the battlefield tour. So, the museum and battlefield can work together that way, and I think it helps people to make the connections and to have the information “click,” and all of that will make their visit more memorable.
On a personal note, I have really come to appreciate battlefield preservation for how it can impact our dioramas. We just completed our diorama of Little Round Top this year. It is 11 feet long and has 2,600 clay rocks based off of photos of the actual rocks. Now, for Devil’s Den, I think a reasonably accurate diorama could be made if one only had period photos to work off of. With Little Round Top, I had only a few period photos taken along the crest; the majority of the photos in the books I have were taken from Devil’s Den, across the valley. They are virtually useless for knowing the shape and location of rocks on the crest. So, it was extremely–I’ll even say, vitally–important for our work that we could go out onto the hill and take photos of the actual rocks. Combined with satellite views from Google Maps, and the period photos where possible, we could make 2,600 accurate rocks. It wouldn’t be possible without battlefield preservation. Granted, not everyone cares that their diorama have accurate rocks. But we do, since it’s possible.
On another personal note, I love being able to walk to the Angle (yes, I now live a mere 15-minute walk from my favorite spot on my favorite battlefield!!) and to think about all the stories that I’ve read for decades–and to walk where it happened! To see Garnett coming on Red Eye, to walk where Armistead and Cushing trod, to walk around the “rough ground” where Capt. Smith exclaimed, “Douthat, what are you doing?!?” So many individuals are so familiar to me, after years of reading about Pickett’s Charge. Maybe just a sentence or two about the man, but I know his name–and I can walk where the events happened. Or, I can take my black dog to Culp’s Hill and “say hi” to Gracie, the black Confederate dog who was mortally wounded as her regiment, the 1st Maryland (CSA) charged. And Pardee Field: “It is murder, but it’s the order.” So many snippets of dialogue or stories. Some are a bit hazy, barely remembered until I reread the books, but a name or a location brings them back. It’s just very cool for this history geek to be able to walk the ground.
Why are preservation and teaching history important? Well, there’s a reason for the saying, “History repeats itself.” So learning history can prompt one to step back and see through lies (for example, what aspects of today’s politics/culture seem awfully similar to the Roman emperor throwing bread to the masses and putting on games, while stealing the Senate’s power right out from under their noses?), or it can offer comfort (“this type of thing has happened before”; “someone always survives, even at Andersonville and Auschwitz”), or it can offer inspiration (Sgt. Tozier, 20th Maine, grew up with an abusive alcoholic father… and ended up earning the Medal of Honor on Little Round Top, just for doing his job and protecting the flag. How many kids today need to hear that? That your future does not have to be crippled by your upbringing?).
And yes, learning history also helps us to see mistakes that were made, how far we’ve come, how far we have to go. But I think the aspect that is often lost is the plain fact that people back then were human and made mistakes, just like we are human and make mistakes. I think people have a tendency to swing to one or the other extreme and forget the flip-side. Either the people in the past got it all right, or the people in the past got it all wrong-wrong-wrong and must be obliterated. But, properly, we need a balance. People in the past were muddling through life, doing the best they could, just as we are. And in 200 or 2,000 years, people will look back on us and think how backward and wrong we were. So, while learning history is important, it’s equally important to teach history as shades of gray, not cut-and-dried black-and-white.
So why is history important? To learn–as a nation, as a culture/society, as a person interacting with others, and as a person internally/morally. Where does battlefield preservation play into this? To make history come alive, to see history, to engage with it. Not everyone will “get it” when they tour a battlefield, but they have a better chance than by sitting in a classroom. And if their tour guide makes history come alive, then their chances are even better.
On a different aspect, preservation is important because it’s preserving the land where our nation was forged, whether in the Revolutionary War or the Civil War or 1812. Yes, Gettysburg is a field–it was in 1863, it is now, it’s not an important mountain pass or something. But men were fighting for what this country was built on. One only has to read Henry Kidd’s reminiscences (“Riding with Custer”) to see how these college kids had a real, full sense and awareness that they were fighting for what their grandfathers had created. These are 19-year-olds going to war, not merely to leave the house and see the world, or because they figured they should; they go because the torch has passed to them to preserve the most-carefully-constructed republic ever. And I wish that was the emphasis in Gettysburg, especially. I guess it’s not the “in” thing anymore to talk about how amazing our republic is, but we really do live in the best government in the world. (I’m talking about how it was designed, not necessarily what it’s become.) I heard once that the push to rewrite/erase history is not an effort to “get it right” but an effort to erase the United States. Lose the history, and you lose the nation’s identity. I think it’s very true. Unfortunately, I think the emphasis nowadays is on ghosts and paranormal. People want ghosts and ghost stories, not real stories of real people. But that just means we have our work cut out for us, doesn’t it?
Why is ABT important? Because you’re preserving history. One only has to look at the desperate fight by the SS United States Conservancy to save the last, greatest, fastest ocean liner of the United States, the SS United States. She was the top of the line in the 50’s. Her engines were classified for decades, their design was so advanced. She still holds the speed record for crossing the Atlantic. But no one is stepping up to give her a pier when she gets evicted from her current location. The pier owners don’t care, the city of Philadelphia doesn’t care. New York doesn’t seem to care. The Navy–which was involved in her construction–isn’t stepping up. A true icon, still sound and intact, able to be converted into business space, and a ship geek’s absolute dream–and she is facing the very real possibility of being scrapped or reefed (at least the latter will mean she still exists and is not completely gone) in a matter of weeks. Losing SS United States is no different than paving over Gettysburg. And I mean every single word of that. Build a Walmart in the shadow of El Capitan in Yosemite. Scrap Old Ironsides. For that matter, develop the beaches of Normandy, don’t bother repairing Notre Dame, and toss out the Mona Lisa. It’s just history and old stuff. What does it matter? Strange to say that, isn’t it? It goes against every fiber in our collective being. Without organizations like American Battlefield Trust or the SS United States Conservancy (who already saved the ship from scrapping once, in the early 2000’s), we lose every tangible piece of history. Do we need to save every patch of dirt where a cannon parked? I don’t know. But I’m sure glad that Lee’s Headquarters is finally preserved and safe. We like to think that no one would really mess with it, but…we’re about to let our nation’s last great ocean liner be lost forever, so…
ABT, like every preservation organization (wildlife, farmlands, wild horses), is fighting an uphill battle. I imagine it’s easy to see what is lost, what couldn’t be saved, but each preservation/rescue organization makes a difference to the what they do save. ABT not only makes a difference for the acre of land itself (and the history that occurred there), but also for the people who will visit that acre from now on. ABT is not just about preserving the dirt—it’s about making it meaningful, whether through interpretive signs and trails, or by bringing groups of people out to learn and experience. We often comment that with our museum, we want to get kids (and adults) interested in the history, but if they go home wanting to make dioramas, that’s okay, too. Anything that sparks creativity, interest, hands-on hobbies, learning…. Making people interested and curious is, I think, how we create learners. And learners will keep reading/listening, and they’ll come back, hopefully with friends. We can’t change the nation. But we can do our part, in our corner.
Keep up the good work.