Remembering the Sultana disaster: This 14-foot model greeted Arkansas museum visitors for years. It was one of two made for a film about Civil War tragedy

The old Sultana museum (Picket photo), Gene Salecker with model and a still from film abouit the disaster

About 25 years ago, an Ohio documentary maker who was passionate about the steamboat Sultana tragedy put his dreams into production, filming scenes in a river, swimming pool and a recreated ship’s cabin, among other locations.

The late Tom Koba’s production apparently never enjoyed widespread distribution, but he did leave behind two models of the Sultana. The actual vessel exploded and caught fire in April 1865, killing about 1,200 people. Hundreds of Federal soldiers, many recently freed from Confederate prisons, including Andersonville and Cahaba, were on their way home.

Sultana author Gene Salecker worked from the remains of those boats to create new models, one of which was the star at the Sultana Disaster Museum in Marion, Ark., before the museum closed two months ago as a larger, permanent venue is built a few blocks away.

A giant version of the doomed vessel will be the centerpiece of the new museum. “People will be able to actually walk up onto the recreated deck and see our actual 1842 steamboat engine (right) and a display on the fateful boilers, as well as other featured displays,” said Salecker, who has purchased numerous artifacts for the museum over the years.

Museum executive director Jeff Kollath said Salecker’s model, which was disassembled recently, will be placed in the main area, too. Salecker will put it back together in October, a month ahead of the museum’s grand opening.

“People can see pictures or drawings of the Sultana, but can only imagine what it really looked like,” said Norman Shaw, a founder of the Sultana Association of Descendants and Friends. “With Gene's large model, they can examine one up close. Also get an idea (of) how it operated.”

History is fortunate a photograph of the overloaded Sultana, taken shortly before the disaster, survives.

Blue tape in the gym shows shape of new Sultana model (Gene Salecker)

Sultana author Jerry Potter said Salecker’s model “is an incredible tool to give people an understanding of the layout of the Sultana. Gene has done an amazing job of restoring it. Now, it is going to its final home.”

I asked Salecker to talk about the Sultana models and how they have been used. His responses have been edited and ordered for brevity and context.

Q. Did you build the model? If so, when did you build it and why?

I built the existing model during the summers of 2013 and 2014 while I was still teaching and had the summers off. However, the foundation of the model came from someone else.

The 14-foot model (actually, two of them) were the brainchild of Tom Koba, of Berlin Heights, Ohio. Tom was an independent filmmaker who had worked with the state of Ohio on a couple of Civil War documentaries

I met Tom at the Ohio Civil War Show in Mansfield after my 1996 book was published. Tom bought a copy and was instantly hooked on the story. He would come to the show each year and pick my brain, hoping one day to make a documentary on the Sultana.

Scenes from filming in 2000, of survivors and fiery water (Courtesy Gene Salecker)

I believe Tom began his film in about 2000. He lived on a large farm and actually built a full-scale main saloon, boiler and coal bin area, some of the decking, etc. At one point, he rented out a public pool and at night, he put up some fake deck pieces, lit them on fire and had people rushing from the burning "boat" and jumping into the water. He hired professional stunt people to set themselves on fire and jump into the water, and a professional makeup person to put "burns" and "scalds" on many of the people. He also used local re-enactors as some of the ex-POWs.

Tom hired a couple of retired gentlemen to build him the two 14-foot models. One was to be detailed and the paddlewheels could move by radio control. He planned to run this on a river near his farm and take shots of the crowded boat going up the river. The second boat was not as well detailed and was meant to be exploded and burned.

Original Sultana model several years after film production (Gene Salecker)

At one of the Sultana Association reunions, Tom came and showed a few of us the finished "rushes." He was getting ready to edit the scenes when he unexpectedly died in 2007 at age 61.

In about 2012, I got a phone call from (his companion and business partner) asking me if I wanted the two 14-foot models. They had sat on her mother's front lawn, covered by a blue tarp .. . near Lake Erie. I rented a U-Haul truck and went and brought the two models back to my house in River Grove, Ill.

(The Picket contacted the business partner and will update this if she responds to questions about the project.)

In the summer of 2013, I moved the best model into my shed and began stripping off the old paint and mold and preparing it the way the Sultana had actually looked. It took me two summers and a lot of work but I completed the first model and brought it down to Marion for the grand opening of the interim museum in April 2015 (photo above).

Q. What materials are primarily used? How much of the original models were used?

A. I primarily used cedar and balsa wood. I also used chairs, spittoons, door handles, buckets, barrels, etc. from scale dollhouses.

Model that greeted museum visitors for 11 years awaits reassembly in new venue (Gene Salecker)

As for how much of Tom's original models I used, (it was) the hulls (Tom had them painted black and I had to strip, sand and paint them white.) I used the decking. I used all the slats in the railings and the upright railing posts. I used much of the paddlewheel housings but had to cut and redesign them. I used all of the stairs leading into the Texas cabins. I used his stage planks. In other words, to honor Tom, I used as much of the original model as I could but much of it needed a lot of modification. I would say I used about 60% of what was not too damaged by the elements.

Q. How did you/the builder come up with the specs and design?

A. All of the information about the Sultana (size, number of boilers, etc.) came from the January and February 1863 Cincinnati newspapers, which were reporting on the building of the Sultana. In 1979, I was working as a draftsman and drew up blueprints of the boat. No steamboat was built by blueprints so there were no existing prints for the Sultana. When someone wanted a new boat built, he went to the boat builder, gave him the measurements he wanted and etc., and the boat builder went to work. Steamboats were pretty standard.

Click on this 1865 panorama of St. Louise to see Sultana at center-right (credit below)

I used the information on the Sultana for specifics, and for the genera overall design of a steamboat, I referred to “The Western Rivers Steamboat Cyclopoedium” by Alan L. Bates, a retired steamboat engineer. Bates wrote his book, which is almost entirely of line drawings of parts of the steamboat, with "a nod to the modeler." When I was finished with my blueprints, I sent them to Alan L. Bates himself to check them over and he returned them with some comments and corrections. Those were what I used and referred to in building the 14-foot model.

(Photo above: Courtesy Herman T. Pott National Inland Waterways Library at the University of Missouri-St. Louis)

Q. Tell me about the second model you built.

A. I used the best of the two (Koba) models to build the one that was displayed in the Interim museum. A few years later, I used the second model to build an "after the explosion" model which has only been put on display once -- at the 2021 kickoff of the fundraising for the new museum. I had to make an exact duplicate of the first model and then strategically wreck it.

I tried to use as much of Tom's original model in the second one (above, courtesy Gene Salecker), also. However, since I had picked the best pieces from both models when I made the first one, there weren’t much undamaged pieces left. Of course, I used the hull and some of the decking but most of it had to be handmade to an exact match of the first model. That was the hard part -- being exactly like the first model except for the ruptured middle of the boat. The stern, the bow, the paddlewheel boxes, everything had to be exactly the same.

Fortunately, I took hundreds of photos as I worked on the first model so I used those as reference for the second model... and I made sure that I kept my measurements of everything.

(Editor's note: There is no room in the gallery for the  "after the explosion" version, which is in storage in Marion, Kollath told the Picket.)

Q. How has the model added to the story of the Sultana?

A. Melody Walker of the interim Sultana Disaster Museum used to say that the two things everybody photographs when they come to the museum is the many names on the Memorial Wall and the 14-foot steamboat model. People like to look at the model to get a better understanding of what the Sultana looked like. They can see how difficult it would have been for a soldier to leap from the top hurricane deck into the crowded water 25 feet below.

Photograph of the Sultana near Helen, Ark., a day before tragedy on the Mississippi (Library of Congress)

The model has added to the understanding of where the explosion came from (top, back end of the boilers in the center of the boat), and how the blast traveled upward at about a 45-degree angle, tearing everything before it, including the pilothouse. The model adds to the understanding of just what the ex-POWs and the others had to go through to reach the supposed safety of the water.

 As they say, a picture (or in this case, a model) is worth a thousand words. It is a great educational aide in helping to explain the tragedy of the Sultana.

Previous Sultana coverage:

• Documentary, events mark 150th anniversary

• Will victim's journal and Bible become part of collection?

• Descendants drop flowers in memory of the lost
• Model captures every detail of Sultana

• Disaster took lives of those who had endured so much
• Siblings recall learning of disaster

Battle of Peachtree Creek: Featherston's Mississippi brigade led the charge, suffered massive casualties as other units got lost or were delayed in the confusion

Gen. Featherston, park at center of fighting (Picket), brigade is fourth arrow from left (Georgia Battlefields Association)

Whether he was called “Old Sweat” because he was a seasoned veteran or for his tendency to perspire, Confederate Brig. Gen. Winfield S. Featherston was cool under fire.

From commanding the 17^th Mississippi Infantry to a brigade, Featherston performed ably at First and Second Manassas, Ball’s Bluff, Fredericksburg, Vicksburg and during the Atlanta Campaign.

“I know of no negative comments or vices or disputes concerning Featherston throughout his Confederate military service,” says Civil War historian Robert D. Jenkins, executive director of the Blue and Gray Education Society. He authored a book about the Battle of Peachtree Creek, where Featherston figured prominently.

Before Saturday, I had never heard of the general. I came across his name while reading markers at Tanyard Creek Park in Atlanta, the center of the failed Confederate attack at Peachtree Creek, which occurred on July 20, 1864. The Atlanta Beltline, a 22-mile loop of trails, goes through the leafy park, which is situated in an upscale neighborhood in the Buckhead community.

The venue is popular with dog walkers, bicyclists and joggers. A creek, Tanyard Branch, runs north-south in what was the center of the Confederate assault on Union divisions waiting for them just below the east-west Peachtree Creek.

The Battle of Peachtree Creek saw Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood’s ill-fated debut as the head of the South’s Army of Tennessee. Hood had hoped to isolate and destroy Maj. Gen. George Thomas’ command before two other Federal armies could come to his help.

The men in gray began the assault mid-afternoon on July 20, 1864, and things got tough quickly. The hilly terrain and ravines made communication and coordination difficult. Confusion and late troop arrivals reigned.

Featherston’s Mississippi brigade, part of Loring’s division, led the charge over what is now called Collier Road and toward Peachtree Creek.

His troops broke through the Federal line near Collier Mill (Picket photo, above) and they fought against three times their number in hand-to-hand combat for some 20 minutes before having to retire, but continued to fight to contest possession of the ridge top until dark, Jenkins says.

His men stubbornly pressed assault at Peachtree Creek

“Featherston carried 1,230 men into Battle at Peach Tree Creek, and fought toe-to-toe with approximately 5,500 Federal soldiers of Ward’s division,” Jenkins wrote on The Atlanta Campaign History Discussion Group on Facebook after I submitted a query..

Marker at Tanyard Creek Park prominently mentions Featherston's role (Picket photo)

“(Featherston) would remark bitterly about the failure of the Tennessee division to his right and of Hardee’s corps for not supporting his breakthrough during that battle,” Jenkins, who lives in northwest Georgia, added.

The 43-year-old general’s regiments suffered the highest casualties at the battle of Peachtree Creek, and were among the highest casualties at Franklin, Tenn., later in 1864.

Charlie Crawford, president emeritus of the Georgia Battlefields Association, is an expert on the fighting at Peachtree Creek and other Atlanta Campaign sites. (The battle used to be called Peach Tree, not Peachtree.)

The lack of coordination and prompt movement doomed the assault, the historian says.

One of many battle markers in the Collier Road area (Picket photo)

Hood and others didn’t get the three missing brigades from Stewart’s Corps (one each from French’s, Walthall’s, and Loring’s divisions) into position in time. 

“Likewise, Maney’s division didn’t fight well, Cleburne’s division was held back to exploit the hoped-for breakthrough, and Bate’s division got lost in the swampy ground around Clear Creek.” Crawford says.

“Consequently, the participating brigades form Walthall’s and Loring’s divisions and the entirety of Walker’s division did almost all the fighting. In that sense, the Confederates were outnumbered, but it wasn’t by design.”

Three large markers (in background) detail the fighting (PIcket photo)

The end of the day saw a Union victory, just two days before the Battle of Atlanta. Confederates suffered about 2,500 casualties in just a few hours.

Of Featherson, Crawford says: “At least his brigade followed through on the attack when several others never got there.”

Why he was transferred to fight in Western Theater

Featherston, a native of Tennessee, saw military service early in life, fighting against Creek Indians. He moved to Mississippi, becoming a lawyer and served two terms in Congress before the Civil War.

After fighting well in Virginia and being wounded in combat, Featherston wrote a letter to Gen. Robert E. Lee in fall 1862 requesting that he and his brigade be reassigned to Mississippi for the defense of the Magnolia State, which was under pressure by Grant, says Jenkins.

1964 state of Georgia map put out to mark Civil War centennial (Picket photo)

“Lee responded by telling Featherston that he could transfer, but Lee could not afford the loss of his troops from his army,” he says.

“Some have mistakenly assumed that Lee was getting rid of Featherston, but in fact, Featherston simply wanted to go where he thought he could do the most good in the defense of his home state.

His brigade went onto additional fame in Virginia with another commander, but it was Featherston who started that brigade on its course of reliability and combat effectiveness, Jenkins argues.

George Barnard's photo of temporary graves at Peachtree Creek (Library of Congress)

Jenkins says Featherston was dubbed “Old Sweat“ because of his exposed forehead.

“He had an early receding hairline/baldness. His forehead would wrinkle, and he would sweat easily when under stress or in hot weather.”

(Some Featherston histories spell the moniker “Old Swet.”)

Featherston’s brigade was one of only seven that was in good enough fighting condition to be used as part of a rear-guard defense during their retreat following the Confederate disaster at Nashville, Jenkins says.

After the war, Featherston returned to Holly Springs, Ms., and resumed his law practice. He died in 1891 at age 70.

READ MORE ABOUT PEACHTREE CREEK:

https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2021/07/three-men-clashed-at-peachtree-creek-on.html

https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-atlanta-campaign-threw-thousands-of.html

https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2014/05/peachtree-creek-2-charlie-crawfords.html

For whom the bell tolls: Pvt. John C. Pollitz lies beneath the Long Island church he dearly loved. His headstone and a bell he bought are reminders of sacrifice

Gravestone in crawlspace in 2018 (Trinity Episcopal Church); Pvt. John C. Pollitz after enlistment 

The memory of John Codman Pollitz -- a young private who died of disease in 1863 while serving with the 44th Massachusetts in North Carolina --  lives on at a Long Island, N.Y., church where his remains lie beneath the floor and his gravestone rests above.

For several years, the soldier’s headstone and a bell he purchased for Trinity Episcopal Church in Roslyn have greeted visitors entering the building.

Officials had hoped to place the stone in a cabinet or display on the wall, but its weight proved problematic..

“The headstone and bell are still in the same place and there are no plans to change this,” church property manager and Mike Callahan said this week when asked by the Picket for plans for a permanent location for the items.

I have been a bit fascinated with the story of Pollitz, the son of a German immigrant, since the first of three articles I wrote following the 2018 discovery of his headstone in the rear section of the elegant sanctuary.

New to me this week was discovery of a document indicating he applied to attend West Point before the war broke out and an 1862 photo of Pollitz, taken shortly after his enlistment. I credit ancestry.com and the American Civil War Research Database for the latter.

The church had long known Pollitz’s grave was incorporated within the current building during construction in 1906. There was no recorded specific location for the grave. That changed in summer 2018, when rotting wooden floor joists were removed and Pollitz’ headstone was exposed; it was lying flat in a crawlspace.

“My assumption was that the headstone was too high standing up for the crawlspace. I believe they simply laid it down on that same spot” during construction, Callahan said a few years ago.

While Pollitz -- who was a member of the church -- remains buried beneath the floor, the congregation had wanted his headstone to be displayed inside. The stone is propped in front of a bell, which likewise has a good story.

According to a 1914 New York Times article, a dying Pollitz asked comrades to ensure his body was sent to Roslyn, where it was to lie in the shadow of the belfry. “With his army pay he had bought a bell as a gift to the parish, and its arrival and his death were so close together that it was tolled for the first time at his funeral,” the article said.

The bell rests on a stand inside the church, an affixed plaque indicating the soldier’s grave lies beneath the church (Photo courtesy Trinity Episcopal Church). Another plaque on the floor calls Pollitz a "son and hero of this parish."

Fever stalked Federal troops in North Carolina

It’s believed that the young Pollitz was living in Boston and 18 when he joined up with the 44th Massachusetts, ostensibly in the summer or fall of 1862.

The regiment, which took part in skirmishes and sieges across North Carolina before it was mustered out in June 1863, was in New Bern for several months before transfer to Plymouth, N.C.

A history of the regiment detailed disease and illness that stalked the troops during campaigning and at their quarters. Pollitz, who served in Company F, died on Jan. 7, 1863, in New Bern. 

According to the “Record of the Service of the Fourth-Fourth Massachusetts Volunteer Militia in North Carolina, August 1862 to May 1863,” Pollitz and 13 other soldiers in the regiment died from cerebrospinal meningitis. A pension record I found online this week (below) mentions malarial typhoid fever.

The volume provides the following information for late 1862 and the first days of 1863 in New Bern.

“December 25, the first case of a new and alarming disease occurred in our regiment, proving fatal in a few days. The epidemic, which followed and extended to other regiments, was entirely outside the experience of any of the surgeons in the department. The fever was at first regarded as a virulent type of malarial disease. The autopsy in the case of Henry G. Kimball, of Andover, Company G, who died Jan. 1, 1863, made by the assistant-surgeon, showed the presence of inflammation in the membranes of the brain and spinal cord. The disease was afterwards recognized as cerebro-spinal meningitis, which is identical with the disease once known as spotted fever, occurring as an epidemic in Massachusetts between the years 1807 and 1816. The next death was that of John C. Pollitz, Boston, Company F, on January 7. Having been previously well, he came in from guard in the morning, was sent to the hospital, and died the same afternoon. This sudden fatality naturally produced much consternation in the regiment. Quinine rations were issued as a prophylactic measure, and Surgeon Ware was untiring in his efforts to determine the cause of the epidemic.”

Pollitz’ remains were sent north to Long Island and to the church, where he had briefly been a Sunday school superintendent.

“It is my understanding that he requested to be buried in the shadow of the belfry of the original chapel. They built the new church alongside the original chapel so I assume that is why they built over it,” said Callahan.

The bell was used during the 1863 Pollitz funeral (Trinity Episcopal Church)

Shortly after his burial, February 1, 1863, the bell was taken down and another put in its place. “John Pollitz’s bell was inverted, filled with dirt and flowers, and stood by his grave for many years,” a church newsletter states.

In 1914, the bell was moved and restored after church officials discovered the grave under that floor while investigating a break in the foundation walls, according to The Times.

Descendants group honors Civil War troops

Pollitz’s father was a businessman; a history of Roslyn indicated he emigrated from Northern Ireland. But an online search of ancestry-related pages shows Otto W. Pollitz was from Hamburg, Germany, and John’s mother was from Massachusetts. The young soldier is believed to have been born in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Church members are unaware of any living descendants, though Pollitz had siblings.

Members of the SUVCW lead 2019 ceremony near plaque (Trinity Episcopal Church)

A 2019 ceremony at the church rededicated the gravesite. Eight members of Moses A. Baldwin Camp #544, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, participated 

According to Dennis Duffy, secretary for the camp, the younger Pollitz attended Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute (now part of NYU) and had moved on to college in Massachusetts, where he enlisted with the 44^th Massachusetts.

"John did not have to go to war. There was no draft at the time and when the draft would come six months after John's death, his family could have afforded to pay a substitute under the rules then in effect," Duffy wrote in 2019 to other members of the SUVCW camp.

Since 2019, the camp has obtained more than 100 headstones for veterans in previously unmarked graves, Duffy said this week. The post on Saturday will dedicate several VA headstones for Civil War soldier graves at Greenfield Cemetery in Uniondale, N.Y.

"I did mention his story in a presentation I made to the North Shore (Long Island) Civil War Roundtable, Huntington, N.Y., last week and must admit the telling brought a tear to my eye," Duffy added.

(At right, the Rev. Margaret Peckham Clark with the Pollitz gravestone in the church crawlspace in 2018)

READ MORE ABOUT POLLITZ:

https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2022/05/headstone-of-union-soldier-buried.html

https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2019/06/in-silent-camping-ground-of-dead-sons.html

https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2019/05/a-civil-war-soldier-and-his-headstone.html

10-MUST SEES: Atlanta History Center senior military historian and curator Gordon Jones says these artifacts in new 'More Perfect Union' exhibit will speak to you

John Brown pike and captured rifle, Frederick Douglass and AHC brochure (Civil War Picket)

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when experiencing “More Perfect Union” -- the Atlanta History Center’s new Civil War exhibit -- for the first time. And I do mean experience: Video panels, sound effects, a massive film, recorded voices and, of course, hundreds and hundreds of artifacts.

I might recommend a repeat visit, as I did this week just ahead of Friday’s formal opening.

If you are pressed for time, or want to get the AHC’s take on stars of the show, I suggest seeing the following "Top 10." Five of these are mentioned in a printed brochure, “Curator Highlights,” while the other five artifacts were gleaned from an interview with Gordon Jones, senior military historian and curator, and a tour he gave to the media on Wednesday

It is remarkable Jones, now in his mid-60s, was leading the effort at the AHC when it opened its signature Civil War exhibit, “Turning Point,” in 1996. Over the past couple years, Jones has shepherded a new exhibition for the DuBose Gallery space. It is much larger in the topics it tackles.

“The new exhibition moves beyond traditional military history to explore the full scope of the era. It challenges us to ask,” the AHC says. “Who was included in the promise of American democracy? Who was excluded? And what does the legacy of that struggle mean today?”

Curator Gordon Jones during a media preview of the exhibit on July 8 (Civil War Picket)

Of course, the fulcrum of this is slavery and what it meant then and its legacy today. Many of the items in this Top 10 are related to that topic. All the items were procured since “Turning Point” opened and they largely show an evolution in interpretation of the Civil War.

While "More Perfection Union" is primarily focused on context about the war, the AHC in about six months will open a companion gallery, "The Hard Hand of War," focused primarily on weapons, gear and uniforms.

Without further ado, 10 must-sees at “More Perfect Union: The American Civil War Era.” These are in sequence as you walk through the space. (All photos by the Civil War Picket except as noted)

Dutch map of African coast, navigational chart for the Transatlantic slave trade, circa 1680

(Courtesy Atlanta History Center)

Frederik de Wit’s map/chart was a vital tool for European merchants in the slave trade, according to the AHC. The map identifies coastal landmarks, rivers, settlements and more.

Millions of enslaved people were transported from the Western and Central African coasts to the Western Hemisphere; many died during the horrific journeys.

“This is one of several items in the exhibition that demonstrates the deep roots of chattel slavery in the New World, and how the long tail of slavery led directly to the American Civil War,” the AHC brochure says.

British blunderbuss musket often used in slave trade

This circa 1750s short-barreled firearm, or blunderbuss, was made by the John Whately family in England. The European slave cartel traded guns for enslaved persons along the West African coast. It was typical for the buyers to supply weapons, iron bars, printed cloth and other metals as part of the barter.

"This one is extremely lightweight, cheaply made, and incredibly rare to find in this condition," said Jones, who believes this one may have been a sample weapon or used for another purpose.

'What to the American Slave is Your Fourth of July?'

First printing of abolitionist Frederick Douglass’ speech, “What to the American Slave is your Fourth of July?” The abolitionist gave his 1852 talk in Rochester, N.Y.

The address “confronted  the contradictions in the American promise of freedom and equality with its central question” about the holiday’s meaning to those in bondage, according to the AHC. It is considered to be a defining moment in U.S. history.

"There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour. Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the every day practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival," Douglass told the audience.

The presentation at the AHC includes audio of an actor reading Douglass' remarks.

John Brown letter, pikes, rifle and figurine

The story goes that a young John Brown witnessed an enslaved boy being beaten with a shovel. From then on, Brown was determined to put an end to the system of bondage.

Years later and while in his 50s, Brown and his family moved to “Bleeding Kansas," where they became engaged in the struggle over slavery. After an attack on abolitionists in Lawrence, Brown led an 1856 raid that left five men and boys believed to be slavery proponents dead.

Brown traveled to his native New England in 1857 to raise money for the cause. He carried a captured Bowie knife and contracted with Connecticut blacksmith Charles Blair to make 950 pikes for $1 each. At some point, Brown decided to use them in the South, rather than Kansas. He hatched a scheme for the weapons to be given to freed and escaped blacks, who would use them on anyone who dared to stop their rebellion. That effort ended in failure at Harpers Ferry, West Va., in 1859. Brown's radical actions hastened the Civil War, historians say.

The AHC display includes Brown’s letter to the pike manufacturer, a figurine, token, a pike and detached pike head, along with a U.S. Model 1855 rifle-musket captured by Brown during the doomed raid on Harpers Ferry.

Film 'Battle Ground / Freedom Ground: What Happened in the Civil War?'

The centerpiece of the new Civil War exhibit is an 18-minute visual timeline presentation. It is quite compelling and is in a semicircular shape, with several viewing benches.

“The film surrounds the audience in the costs and consequences of the Civil War – real quotes help tell the story of the era in the words of those who lived through it, and the audience is flanked on their left by the military costs – changes in territory, successful battles waged – and on their rights by the human costs – the increasing casualties as the war enters history as the bloodiest in American history,” says the brochure.

Flag from freedmen’s refugee camp at Craney Island, Va.

Most of the American flag is long gone, save for the 34 stars and upper-left canton. It flew over a camp on Craney Island near Hampton Roads, Va., that protected about 1,800 escaped slaves, whom Jones said were active in their liberation.

The camp operated for just over a year before closing in September 1863; it was one of dozens of such camps in southeast Virginia.

“Here on small island near Fortress Monroe, formerly enslaved people married, found work, attended school, and built new lives. But freedom was not always what they had imagined. Federal authorities were unprepared for the massive influx of refugees," the museum says.

Jones marvels at the work of conservators. “I almost didn’t recognize it as an artifact (when donated), he said. “It came in a bag.” The DuBose family – central to Atlanta’s memory of the Civil War -- donated the precious artifact.

Flag of the 127^th U.S. Colored Troops

The impetus for the AHC’s investment in artifacts related to African-American soldiers came in 2019, when it bought a hand-painted flag made for the 127^th USCT infantry. The flag depicts a soldier waving farewell to Columbia, a symbol of the United States, with the words “We Will Prove Ourselves Men" at the top

“It’s an iconic knock-your-socks-off artifact,” Jones said at the time. Even an enlisted man’s USCT uniform wouldn’t be as historically significant as this flag.”

This is one of three surviving examples of at least 12 USCT flags painted by David Bustill Bowser.

The 127^th trained at Camp William Penn near Philadelphia in 1864. It took part in combat during the siege of Petersburg and the surrender at Appomattox. USCT units -- which helped turn the tide in several campaigns and battles -- were led by white officers and it took time for soldiers to receive pay equal to their white counterparts.

The flag captures the essence of why 180,000 African Americans volunteered in the Union army during the Civil War. These soldiers and refugees showed the world Blacks were ready and able to liberate themselves.

List of enslaved Africans landed in Cuba, 1863

Documents written on parchment in 1868 detail 120 enslaved persons – some only 10 or 11 years old -- brought to Cuba five years before despite a ban on such trade.

They were found abandoned after their illegal landing near San Juan de las Playas.

The galling ledger includes their age, physical condition and, most chillingly, the branding mark burned in their bodies. The latter were recorded under the heading “distinguishing marks.”

Many of the enslaved are described by their African and Christian names.

“Placed in the colonial emancipado indentured labor system, they were ‘free’ in name but bound to years of forced labor, often on sugar plantations, the exhibit says.

Check for New York Draft Riot damages

Many opposed to Northern military conscription in 1863 rioted in New York City, overwhelming police and leading to scores of deaths and widespread destruction.

Black residents were targeted out of fears of labor competition following emancipation. The home of Hiram Dalton, 61, was ransacked and most of the household possessions were lost. A city relief fund awarded $115 to Dalton for “Damage by rioters.”

The exhibit features a Broadway Bank check written out to Dalton.

“It brought tears to my eyes,” its very human connection shining brighter than the check’s bureaucratic ink, Jones told me.

Confederate battle flag of the 6^th/9^th Tennessee combined

Charles Turner Jr. of Atlanta in recent years donated this Georgia-made flag that flew at the “Dead Angle” at Kennesaw Mountain during the epic June 27, 1864, battle.

The 6^th and 9^th Tennessee regiments consolidated during the war and its soldiers took part in the Atlanta Campaign under the Army of Tennessee as its commanders defended against the approach of Union forces.

The 6^th-9^th were stationed at Cheatham Hill, the bloodiest part of the Kennesaw Mountain battlefield, also known as the Dead Angle.

As the AHC brochure points out, the subsequent capture of Atlanta secured President Abraham Lincoln’s re-election, “and with it, the preservation of the Union and the abolition of slavery.”

MORE COVERAGE:

https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2026/06/atlanta-history-center-hopes-to-make.html

https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2026/04/compelling-civil-war-artifacts-are.html

https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2025/05/first-on-picket-compelling-artifacts.html

https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2026/07/old-number-9-confederate-capt-keys.html