Fort Bend Museum Complex [TX]

Description

The Fort Bend Museum Complex presents the local history of the Brazos River and Fort Bend County, Texas. The complex includes the Long-Smith Cottage, the 1883 John M. Moore Home, the McFarlane House, and a history museum. The 1840 Greek Revival Long-Smith Cottage was once the residence of Jane Long (1798-1880), known as the "Mother of Texas." She is thought to be the first English-speaking woman to give birth to a baby in Texas. Today, the cottage is styled to depict 1840s and 1860's middle-class life in Richmond, Texas. The neoclassical 1883 John M. Moore Home belonged to a prominent area rancher and politician, John M. Moore. The house holds period rooms, meeting rooms, and exhibits. The museum offers dioramas of key historical periods, including the 1821 settlement, the Texas Revolution (1835-1836), the plantation period, and the Civil War.

The museum offers period rooms, exhibits, tours, school tours, school walking tours, school outreach programs, a traveling trunk, Scout programs, junior docent positions, and summer activities. The website offers activities, extra information, and suggested reading lists for teachers.

Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park [FL]

Description

This park commemorates the site of Florida's largest Civil War battle, which took place February 20, 1864. More than 10,000 cavalry, infantry, and artillery troops fought a five-hour battle in a pine forest near Olustee. Three U.S. Colored Troops took part in the battle, including the now famous 54th Massachusetts. The battle ended with 2,807 casualties and the retreat of Union troops to Jacksonville until the war's end just 14 months later. Olustee Battlefield has a visitor center with historical information and artifacts. A reenactment is held every February and a Civil War Expo takes place in late summer. Scenes for Civil War movies, including the 1989 movie Glory, have been filmed during the reenactments.

The park offers a short film, exhibits, and occasional recreational and educational events (including living history events).

Soldiers and Sailors Military Museum and Memorial [PA]

Description

The Soldiers and Sailors Military Museum and Memorial presents the military history of Pennsylvanians from the Civil War to the War on Terrorism, and commemorates the veterans and fallen of past and present military action. Exhibits include a wide range of wartime artifacts and artwork, including a comprehensive range of prosthetic limbs and military headgear. All military branches are represented.

The museum offers exhibits, one-hour or 270-minute guided educational tours, 150-minute guided educational tours with hands-on activities, outreach presentations, camps, and Scout programs. Tour topics include both World Wars, the Homefront, the Civil War, women and war, African Americans and war, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The website offers veteran and fallen solider listings.

Ellwood Manor [VA]

Description

The 5,000-acre Ellwood represents a fairly typical antebellum agricultural property. Built circa 1790 by William Jones, the residence served as a Confederate hospital for the wounded of the 1863 Battle of Chancellorsville; and Gouverneur K. Warren used the grounds as a Union headquarters during the 1864 Battle of the Wilderness. Following the battle, Ellwood's caretakers, Confederate sympathizers, were imprisoned; and the estate was abandoned for the next eight years. The Ellwood cemetery holds "Stonewall" Jackson's amputated arm, and several of the 25,000 dead of the Battle of the Wilderness were temporarily interred on site.

The estate offers house tours. Ellwood Manor is located within the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial.

Ulysses S. Grant Home

Description

The Italianate structure known as the U. S. Grant Home was built in 1859–60 as a residence by Alexander J. Jackson of Galena. When Ulysses S. Grant returned to the city in 1865 as a Civil War hero, he was presented the house as part of the city's celebration. All of the rooms are decorated and furnished to represent the mid-1860s. Many of the furnishings belonged to the Grant family.

The site offers exhibits, tours, and occasional recreational and educational events.

National Museum of Civil War Medicine [MD]

Description

The National Museum of Civil War Medicine presents the technological techniques and changes made in medicine between 1861 and 1865, as well as the stories of those involved with Civil War-era medicine—soldiers, medical practitioners, and their families. Topics include medical education, recruitment, camp life, evacuation of the wounded, field dressing stations and hospitals, embalming, and modern military medicine. Frederick, Maryland, site of the museum, was the location of forty Civil War skirmishes and battles. The museum has an additional location at the Pry House Field Hospital Museum on the Antietam National Battlefield. This site focuses on the development of first aid and emergency medicine during the 1862 Battle of Antietam, also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg.

The museum offers exhibits, 90-minute guided tours, question and answer sessions, hands-on activities, lectures, educational programs, and research assistance. Payment is required for research assistance.

Mine Creek Battlefield State Historic Site

Description

On October 25, 1864, approximately 2,800 Union troops attacked and defeated about 8,000 Confederates along the banks of Mine Creek. This was one of the largest cavalry battles in the Civil War and was the only major battle fought in Kansas. The Union brigades were commanded by Colonels Frederick W. Benteen and John F. Philips. After this battle, Federal forces pursued and defeated additional Confederates in Missouri as they attempted to return to Arkansas, Indian Territory (Oklahoma), and eventually Texas. Visitors to the site can learn more about the soldiers and their stories as this dramatic story comes alive at the Mine Creek Battlefield.

The site offers exhibits, occasional living history events, tours, and occasional recreational and educational events.

General Butler State Resort Park [KY]

Description

The General Butler State Resort Park includes the 1859 Greek Revival Butler-Turpin State Historic House. The house commemorates the Butler family, one of the most prominent military families of Kentucky. The Butlers served in the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican War, and Civil War. Today, their home serves as a museum of local life and the family's military history. The site includes the family home, summer kitchen, log house archaeological site, and cemetery.

The house offers tours, as well as educational programming led by costumed interpreters and in compliance with state educational standards.

Zebulon B. Vance Birthplace [NC]

Description

This pioneer farmstead features the birthplace of Zebulon Baird Vance, North Carolina's Civil War governor. Before becoming governor, Vance served as a Confederate Army officer and later became a U.S. Senator. Rugged and controversial, Vance had a dynamic political career, which is traced at the homestead. The five-room log house—reconstructed around original chimneys—and its outbuildings are furnished to evoke the period from 1795 to 1840 when three successive generations of the famed mountain family lived here.

The site offers a slide show, tours, exhibits and occasional recreational and educational events (including living history events).

Bentonville Battlefield [NC]

Description

The Battle of Bentonville, fought March 19–21, 1865, was the last full-scale action of the Civil War in which a Confederate army was able to mount a tactical offensive. This major battle, the largest ever fought in North Carolina, was the only significant attempt to defeat the large Union army of General William T. Sherman during its march through the Carolinas in the spring of 1865.

The site offers a short film, exhibits, tours, and occasional recreational and educational events (including living history events).