Honor and tragedy through his eyes, hand

The paintings of Red Grooms, one of Nashville's most respected artists, hang in museums and galleries worldwide. Now, Grooms' look at the Civil War is on display at the Tennessee State Museum. Civil War images haunted Grooms' life from its beginning. Long before attending Hillsboro High School, he discovered that his boyhood home sat just a stone's throw from the site of the Battle of Nashville in 1864. • Article

These women put their lives on the line

Loreta Janeta Velasquez was a determined woman. Born in Cuba, she enlisted in the Confederate army in 1861 -- without her husband's knowledge.

After being discharged after the Bull Run, Ball's Bluff and Fort Donelson campaigns, she decided to try once again to serve in a male guise. At 20, she was wounded at Shiloh, before being discovered and slipping into the espionage world.

Joyce Henry, an interpreter at Colonial Williamsburg, portrayed Velazquez, aka "Lt. Henry Buford", at a talk last week at Shiloh National Military Park.

No one knows for sure how many women served in the ranks. Estimates range from about 250 to more than a 1,000, a tiny percentage of the ranks. It was strictly prohibited -- but that didn't stop women from trying.

"They stepped into a realm we cannot even imagine," said Henry (right). "They merit recognition we give to all veterans."

Their motives were similar to the men with whom they served: A paying job, patriotism and adventure.

Some of the more well-known soldiers are Albert Cashier (Jenny Hodgers), Sarah Edmonds (Franklin T. Thompson) and Frances Clayton. They served along young men or boys, whose voices weren't always much deeper. Women who feared being detected sometimes moved to another unit. Some women wore special corsets. Physical exams at enlistment were cursory, at best.

According to Henry, Americans in the mid-19th century assumed only men who wear pants and dress as a soldier.

"The social and cultural stigma about what women could do blinded them to what was in front of them," said Henry.

The discovery of a woman's true gender almost always came after a wound or death.

NPS may cull deer at battlefields

The National Park Service is wrapping up public meetings about the problems caused by white-tailed deer on three Civil War battlefields in Maryland and Virginia. The agency is considering using sharpshooters to kill deer that are preventing forest regeneration by eating seedlings and saplings. • Article

Have history, will travel Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania Civil War Road Show, featuring vidoes and interactive exhibits, kicked off its 67-county run Thursday in Pittsburgh, where foundries such as Fort Pitt and Phoenixville Iron Co. produced 3,000 cannons and the Allegheny Arsenal in Lawrenceville turned out 40,000 bullets a day. • Article