I promised a glimpse of the Civil War display this week.

What will you see if you visit the museum after April 18?

In honor of the end of the Civil War, the museum chose to open early with a display of those from the local community who took part in the Civil War.

Sometimes we think that history doesn’t touch us but it has a profound effect on every community — at least the Civil War did.

One of the many items on display are diaries written by Edwardsburg doctors, Dr. John Sweetland and Dr. Cyrus Bacon, Jr.,  who served in the war with the Michigan Cavalry. Copies of their diaries are on display.

On the wall is a long list of Edwardsburg men who served in the civil War. Many names are familiar and some are not. Some are buried in the Edwardsburg cemetery and some are not. Some enlisted in other states and came to Edwardsburg to live the remainder of other lives.

In the showcase are artifacts from the war. There are medals, ribbons and even buttons from a Civil War uniform.

There is a section on President Abraham Lincoln and a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation.

A few ladies dresses are on display as well as quilts. Slaves used quilts as ways of communicating with other slaves. Information and signals were sewn on to quilt pieces.

Sandy Click Blanchard, a former Edwardsburg resident now living in Virginia sent the museum items from her family collection. Her great-grandfather, an Edwardsburg resident, served with the Michigan Volunteer Cavalry. On display are his 20 uniform buttons, rosettes from his uniform, his red soft cover book entitled the Battle of Chicamauga, which was fought on Sept 18, 1863, his yellow ribbon which says “Company M, 4 Mich. Vol Cavalry,” and a picture of the Fourth Michigan Cavalry, Captors of Jefferson Davis sitting on the steps of the Jefferson Davis home.

Included are the descriptions of his serving in the Civil War, written in pen (and still very legible) by his daughter Bertha Thompson Hicks. Bertha Thompson was Sandy Blanchard ’s grandmother.

Also included in her collection is a Louisville GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) Commemorative Canteen. This 1895 souvenir tin canteen retains most of its original polychrome painted, stenciled decoration.

The exhibit includes battle and battlefield models and scrapbooks created by eighth grade students at the Edwardsburg Middle School and an hour-long playlist of videos on the 14th, 15th, and 16th amendments to the U.S. Constitution produced by students at Edwardsburg High School.

At 7 p.m. on April 23, at the museum, Edwardsburg Middle School teacher Erin Souchick will speak on “Forgotten Soldiers: the Role of Native Americans in the War Between the States.” Souchick was honored in 2008 by the local and state chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) with the History Award for Teaching.”

The museum will be open for a limited time during this display. The hours are Thursday and Friday from 1 to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. It will re-open for the full season on May 1.

For more information contact the museum at 663-3005.

Now on a personal note:

The articles about the pink pearl eraser and the drinking fountains were noted by readers. I received a very large eraser with the words OOPS printed on it.  Now I am really ready for a big mistake. While visiting the High School a gentleman pointed out that there are still drinking fountains in the school. I didn’t check to see if they worked. I’ll check another day.

Thanks readers for keeping me straight and honest.

 

Jo-Ann Boepple works at the Edwardsburg Area History Museum