$2.8 million private gift will help fund restoration of Vicksburg's majestic Illinois Memorial, removal of old park HQ considered an intrusion on the battlefield

1906 Illinois Memorial (top photos) and July 11 demolition of old park HQ (FVNMP)

Conjuring the grandeur of Rome’s Parthenon, and topped by an oculus, mythical figures and a large bronze eagle, the Illinois State Memorial at Vicksburg, Ms., records the names of 36,325 soldiers from the Prairie State who took part in the campaign to capture the vital Confederate city.

Forty-seven steps – matching each day of the Union siege -- lead up to the interior and the lists of names on bronze plaques. The building is one of Vicksburg National Military Park’s most popular tour spots, but age and time have taken their toll.

The Friends of Vicksburg National Military Park & Campaign on July 11 announced a $2.8 million private donation, matched by $2.5 million from the National Park Service, will go toward restoration of the Illinois Memorial and other projects. Texas businessman and friends founding board member John Nau III made the large donation. 

Bess M. Averett, executive director of the friends group, told the Picket the work on the Illinois Memorial, which opened in 1906, will begin in mid-August and last about one year. The monument will be closed during that time.

Retired Brig. Gen. Robert Crear, Ryan Groves, Darrell Echols, John Nau III (FVNMP)

“Over a century of weather exposure -- including through the oculus -- has caused deterioration to both the stone and the inscriptions inside,” a news release said. “A full restoration is crucial to preserve its integrity and allow future generations to experience its splendor and meaning.”

More than 100 units from Illinois fought in the Vicksburg campaign. About 40 Illinois soldiers received the Medal of Honor for their valor.

Friday’s announcement signaled the beginning of the project, which started with demolition of the park’s former headquarters and museum, built in 1937.

The structure is on Pemberton Avenue, just south of the Illinois Memorial. It is considered an intrusion “that obscures the story and sacrifices of the men who fought and died there in 1863,” according to officials.

Illinois monument is between tour stops 2 and 3; old HQ is near surrender site (NPS; click to enlarge)

“People think because it was a replica antebellum home that it was historic. But it was built long after the war and literally in the center of one of the most critical areas of the park for interpretation,” said Averett.

An NPS report on museums built at Civil War parks in the 1930s said this of the old headquarters, which was unsuitable for its use and was later condemned:

“The Vicksburg building resembled so well an antebellum plantation mansion that a later superintendent converted it to his residence and packed the museum off to a utilitarian frame structure elsewhere in the park.

Nau was on hand for a ceremony and the start of demolition.

Old headquarters (center) obstructed sight lines of the battlefield (FVNMP)

“This gift from John Nau is nothing short of visionary,” said retired Brig. Gen. Robert Crear, board president of Friends of Vicksburg National Military Park & Campaign, according to the Vicksburg Post newspaper. “It will not only preserve a national treasure -- the Illinois Memorial -- but also reclaim the battlefield from post-war development and restore its integrity for all Americans.”

Ryan Groves, acting superintendent of the park, referred emailed questions from the Picket to the friends group.

The nonprofit said its chief goal is restoring land and landmarks to their wartime appearance and context.

One of the first projects accomplished by the in 2011 was the removal of 50 acres of trees in the same area. “Before that work, rows of cannons faced a dense forest confusing visitors and hiding the very terrain that made Vicksburg so impenetrable.” 

Rotunda of Illinois Memorial includes the state seal, plaques bearing names (Library of Congress)

Repairs on Gen. Pemberton's headquarters in Vicksburg come to a halt because of federal spending cuts. Will the Greek Revival home be revived one day?

Photos of work two years ago on the federal property in Vicksburg (NPS)

Recent government spending cuts have brought an end to the rehabilitation of the Vicksburg, Ms., house Confederate Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton used as his headquarters during the Federal siege of the city.

“No work has been completed in the past 12 months, and the contract for Pemberton's Headquarters was terminated for the convenience for the federal government,” Vicksburg National Military Park Superintendent Carrie Mardorf said in an email to the Picket on Thursday.

“The contractor will be removing their tools from the site in the upcoming weeks. That's all the information I can provide at this time," Mardorf said.

I previously wrote two posts about the project at the Willis-Cowan House on Crawford Street, and had recently checked in with the superintendent and other park employees.

The superintendent did not detail what remains to be done or why there was no work done in the eight and a half months before President Donald Trump took office and initiated massive staffing and spending cuts across federal agencies.

“There is no timeline for completion since there is no funding for this project,” Mardorf wrote. (At right, a historic photo of the facade)

She referred me to a federal website that outlines “Termination for Convenience of the Government.”

The first line of the page is, “The Government may terminate performance of work under this contract in whole or, from time to time, in part if the Contracting Officer determines that a termination is in the Government’s interest.”

The term has entered the lexicon because of spending cuts by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Trump and DOGE chief Elon Musk say they are targeting waste, while critics argue much of the spending is essential.

The Vicksburg Post reported earlier this year seven park employees were terminated, but most apparently were reinstated.

Pemberton (left) – working from a first-floor office -- and his staff tried to manage the desperate situation during Maj. Gen. Ulysses Grant’s siege of Vicksburg in 1863.

By July 2, it appeared Pemberton’s isolated, famished and exhausted army could withstand no more. That night, they met and decided to negotiate for peace with Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Pemberton sent a letter to Grant on July 3 and the surrender occurred the following day – a major defeat for the Confederacy the same week it lost at Gettysburg.

The Greek Revival home survived the Civil War, becoming a residence, Catholic school and bed and breakfast over the years. The NPS acquired the property in 2003 and opened it to visitors from 2008 to 2016, when it was closed because of safety concerns

The $1.3 million Pemberton project paused in 2022-2023 to redesign the two-story, front porch to address structural concerns and replace additional wood pieces that had unforeseen deterioration. Some observers had commented online about the lengthy closure before work resumed; officials said the condition of many of the home's features were worse than anticipated.

In December 2023, crews finished repairing the roof of the Willis-Cowan House and moved on to major work on the porch. A park page on the project has not been updated since October 2024. It says the work was expected to be completed late this year. That included reconstruction of a smaller porch.

Officials had hoped the building would reopen to visitors one day.

The ironclad USS Montauk sank the Rattlesnake at Fort McAllister. After delays, a 3D model of the Federal monitor is being produced for display at Georgia park

Early model of Montauk; section of blueprints (SCAD) and Professor Johnson describing its operations (Picket photo)

Jason Carter, site manager at Fort McAllister State Park in Richmond Hill, Ga., believes a model of the ironclad USS Montauk -- which prowled the waters and bombarded Confederate earthworks -- will be a cool educational tool at its visitor center.

Carter would like to see it positioned next to an old model of the CSS Nashville (Rattlesnake), a commerce raider the Montauk blew out of the water in February 1863.

Greg Johnson says completing and printing a precise 3D model of the Montauk -- one of 10 Passaic-class monitors -- will be a boon for graduate student Wilson Han, who is in his gaming class at the nearby Savannah College of Art and Design.

“A legacy piece,” Johnson says of the effort.

And Han (left), a native of China, is likewise excited by the project, which involves modern technology and a bit of old-fashioned model-making.

“I am always interested in history,” he says.

Now, five years after Johnson visited the park and met former interpretive ranger Mike Ellis, the dream of having a Montauk model is finally close to reality. Han has been working on the model design for the past couple months, using Autodesk Maya software. Han said April 1 the modeling is going well but slowly because of a busy college quarter.

The original goal of the project was to create compelling interpretive panels, a 3D ship model and film that explained the role of USS Montauk and other innovative Federal monitors in the siege of Confederate outposts on the Atlantic Ocean, specifically Fort McAllister.

The plan turned out to be too ambitious, given SCAD graduations and the complexity of work, which ran up against limited class time. Still, a half dozen wall panels and a schematic of the Montauk were created by SCAD students and installed in late 2022.

Work on a model stalled after that, but when I reached back out in December to Johnson, interactive design and game development professor at SCAD, he asked for contact information for park leadership (Ellis had left by then) and I connected him with Carter.

Jason Carter measures CSS Nashville exhibit to aid in model for Montauk (Picket photo)

Carter met with Johnson and Han at the park on Feb. 1 to discuss the 3D model, and I tagged along. The professor explained a previous student had made a 3D model for in-game simulation (for the film) but that aspect never came to fruition. Hence, the current effort to convert that to a printable 3D model.

Johnson stressed the work would be tedious, that Han would have to check all specifications and ensure the model was ready for printing.

“I have to be certain to do the job right,” Han told the Picket.

Accuracy is paramount, says Johnson, who located the likely paint scheme for the ironclad

“It will be down to the bolt,” he says of the reproduction.

The Nashville was trapped near this bend in the Ogeechee River (Picket photo)

Key to the whole effort – for the wall display and the model – is something Ellis found by chance several years ago.

Finding blueprints was a stroke of fortune

Ellis, now a guide and trainer for Old Towne Trolley Tours in Savannah, recalls being in a storage area at Fort McAllister in 2017. There were piles of documents and papers everywhere.

“As rangers come and go, things get lost to time,” he says.

Ellis went through some of them and found a matted long tube. Inside: A precious copy of the USS Montauk’s blueprints, manufactured in dozens of sheets.

One of numerous photos of blueprints shows turret (Courtesy Greg Johnson)

“I knew immediately what is was,” says Carter. Now the staff could upgrade the monitor exhibit, putting a facsimile of the blueprints on one wall.

Everything clicked during Johnson’s visit to the site. “Me and Greg spent a better part of the day taking photos of (the blueprints) in detail.”

They used a custom-built rig to slide dozens of sheets under a camera to obtain high resolution.

“These images were then processed, enhanced and stitched together using photo editing tools to make the panels,” Johnson says. The image could then be used for the wall, model or the film.

Showdown on the Ogeechee was one-sided

USS Montauk receives fire from Fort McAllister as it hammers the Nashville

Andy Hall, A Civil War naval expert and author, told the Picket the Passaic monitors were the first large-class of monitors and many of them served together, such as the campaign against the earthen Fort McAllister in 1863 and 1864.

The Union navy, as it continued its chokehold on Southern ports and readied for offensive operations, sent the Montauk and sisters Passaic, Patapsco and Nahant, supported by gunboats Seneca, Dawn and Wissahickon to bombard and capture Fort McAllister in January 1863.

The skipper of the Montauk was John Worden (left), famous for being the USS Monitor’s captain when it clashed with the CSS Virginia in 1862.

Capable Confederate gunners at Fort McAllister hit the ironclad 13 times in its first action, but caused little damage. A second attack on Feb. 1, 1863, found the vessel, according to histories, pounded by 48 shells. The Montauk's sister ships also took part in the action.

Its big day came on February 28. The sidewheeler Nashville, which was bottled up and hiding under the guns of Fort McAllister for protection, tried to get away from the Federal ironclads via Seven-Mile Bend on the Ogeechee River, but apparently ran aground.

The 215-foot blockade runner commanded by Lt. Thomas Harrison Baker became a sitting duck because of its lack of maneuverability and deep draft in a tight area, and the Montauk pounced.

“All the monitors were designed for littoral or riverine operations, and so drew as little water as possible,” says Hall. “Nashville was built as an ocean-going steamship, so had a fuller, deeper hull.” That proved to be a disadvantage at McAllister.

Montauk’s XV- and 11-inch Dahlgrens were able to destroy the former commerce raider.

Worden was pleased with his destruction of ‘this troublesome pest’” wrote John V. Quarstein, director emeritus of the USS Monitor Center in a blog.

“However, Montauk suffered a huge jolt when it struck a Confederate torpedo en route down the Ogeechee River. Worden’s quick thinking saved his ironclad.” (Quarstein’s new biography of Worden will be published April 15).

The Union naval attacks on Fort McAllister itself were less successful. The low-profile earthen fort could withstand the shelling and repairs could be readily made.

While the Montauk was scrapped in the early 1900s, the park grounds and museum have a large number of CSS Nashville artifacts.

USS Montauk (left) and USS Lehigh in Philadelphia in 1902 (Wikipedia)

And in this corner, weighing in at . . .

On the afternoon of my visit, Carter, Johnson and Han -- who is majoring in game development and interactive design -- met in a conference room and a museum gallery that houses the wall panels, artifacts and the CSS Nashville model.

Carter used a tape measure to get the dimensions of the Nashville display case. That was to help ensure the Montauk 3D model would be built in the proper scale (1/78).

Wilson Han and Professor Johnson are working from this paint scheme (Courtesy Steven Lund)

“This makes the USS Montauk model 30 11/16th inches or 780mm in length,” Johnson wrote in a later email. The ironclad, he says was slightly asymmetrical

Carter provided these vital statistics for the two warships:

Montauk, 200 feet long, beam 46 feet, draft 10 feet

Nashville, 215 feet long, beam 34 feet, draft 20 feet

While the monitors were mass-produced, they did undergo changes during the service, and SCAD students wanted to be sure the appearance of the Montauk matched the time it prowled off Fort McAllister.

SCAD is working from a Montauk paint scheme described in the work “Modeling Civil War Ironclad Ships” by Steven Lund and William Hathaway. 

The deck is lead gray, the turret and pilot house black with a narrow white ring, and the smokestack black with the upper one third in dark green.

To distinguish them, all 10 Passaic ironclads had some color variations.

Sources for such information on paint schemes are difficult to find, says model maker and writer Devin J. Poore.

“Black is very popular, (while) gray and white were used in really hot areas.”

3D printing is not for the faint of heart

Converting an item intended for a game to a 3D printable object requires numerous revisions.

The former are designed with much higher resolution so they can be used in interactive entertainment. Former SCAD student Collin Drilling created the original image of the USS Montauk. It had about 10,000 “holes;” he worked from May and Zbrush software.

Han’s task was to bring down the resolution and fine tune the details. Johnson had worked on the turret, and his student used that as a guide.

A version of the Montauk model before Han's work to modify it for printing (Courtesy SCAD)

Preparing the model for 3D printing is one thing, but ending up with a worthy final product is another. Lots of things can go wrong in printing – and often do, the SCAD team says. Plastic can shrink during the process, the printer footing may be off and a misfeed can occur.

The printer is like a dot matrix and the artist must determine how many pieces he should make for the ironclad model and figure in joints for assembly. While Han wants to keep it to perhaps one to three pieces, some items require more, says Johnson.

Poore (photo below) told the Picket the quality of any model, handmade or 3D designed and printed, depends on the skill of the modeler.

“3D models come off the printer needing sanding, priming, assembly, etc. Depending on how much work you put into the process depends on the result. There are certain benefits that 3D printing can have over hand making, such as pretty much guaranteed right angles and symmetry, but then again you have to worry about how to actually print a piece so that it comes out cleanly, and so that it won't warp in the future,” he says.

This project is a mix of newer and old technology. While the printing will produce the frame of the ship, finer pieces such as chains and rigging will need to come for a model kit or the like.

And the painting is definitely old school; Johnson said he expects to assist with that.

Passaics were primo, but had limitations

For Fort McAllister, the Montauk model will help further its education of visitors on the fort and various Federal attempts to subdue it.

Lund said the innovation and quality of the Passaic class made for the best monitors.

“Although two of the 10 produced were lost, some of them soldiered on into the 20^th century. At least two were recommissioned to serve as harbor defense vessels in the Spanish-American War. One of them, the USS Camanche, guarded the San Francisco Bay during that conflict. She was sold for scrap in 1908 and her hull functioned as a coal barge as late as WW II.”

A model of the U.S.S. Carondelt being made for 3D printing (Courtesy Devin J. Poore)

Poore says the Passaic monitors were a stepping stone in warship development but were underutilized and not appropriate for most situations they encountered..

“For the work needed on the Atlantic coast, i.e. reducing forts, they weren't the best candidates. They were built to fight Confederate ironclads, and simply didn't see much action in that regard, due to the limited number of Confederate opponents.”

Poore is in the process of making his first full-blown printed ironclad, the city-class U.S.S. Carondelet. The vessel had notable service in the Western Theater.

Devin J. Poore's model of the USS Weehawken (Courtesy of the creator)

Our flag was still there: 'The Demon of Unrest' brings attention to the march to war, Fort Sumter's brave commander and the return of Old Glory after Union triumph

Souvenir from April 1865 flag-raising (Courtesy Glen Hayes), Peter Hart puts flag back up during 1861 bombardment

If you look closely at the illustration on the dust jacket for Erick Larson’s “The Demon of Unrest,” you will notice something small, but colorful at dead center. The object is surrounded by Fort Sumter’s brick walls, flames and smoke and the bright streaks of incoming artillery fire.

It's the U.S. flag flying defiantly as garrison commander Col. Robert Anderson and his soldiers bravely withstand the furious Confederate bombardment that launched the Civil War in April 1861. Anderson felt not only the burden of defending the bastion, but also safeguarding the American flag. He surrendered only after his supplies were depleted, parts of the interior were on fire and his exhausted, outnumbered troops could not carry on.

I read Larson’s compelling book a couple months back and thought back to two posts I have written about the National Park Service taking three historic Fort Sumter flags off display last year to give them time to rest from exposure to light. Among them is the 20-foot-by 10-foot storm flag, which flew during the 34-hour bombardment.

As Larson recounts, Anderson told Confederates hours before the attack he would not fire “unless compelled to do so by some hostile act against this fort or the flag of my Government."

Some members of the flag-removal team in front of the storm flag at Fort Sumter (NPS photo)

Rebel batteries, naturally, took aim at the storm flag, which has 33 stars, once the early-morning assault began, and they eventually brought it down.

“A ball or shell shattered its staff and the great flag collapsed into the smoke below. ‘Then arose the loudest and longest shout of joy – as if this downfall of the flag, with its cause, was the representation of our victory,’ Southern firebrand Edmund Ruffin wrote in his diary,” Larson writes.

The flag, to the Union garrison, was “a tactile representation of nationhood” and must be made to fly again. (Robert Anderson, left)

“Sumter’s unofficial infantryman, Peter Hart, the New York City police officer who had accompanied Anderson’s wife on her surprise visit to the fort, set off through the smoke and fire and came back with a long spar to replace the shattered flagstaff,” Larson writes. “Hart also retrieved the flag and nailed it by its edge to the spar. He then fixed the spar to a gun carriage on the parapet level, all this while fully exposed to Confederate fire. Once again the wind caught the flag. It did not fly as high as it had, but at intervals wind gusts created temporary clearings that revealed the flag gamely flying amid striations of smoke.”

Confederates treated Anderson and his men honorably after the surrender, and he took the storm flag with him. It immediately became a patriotic symbol for the remainder of the conflict and raised the status of the Star-Spangled Banner to what we know today. Anderson was treated as a hero in North.

As Military Images publisher Ronald S. Coddington wrote, Anderson later told an acquaintance of the flag: “I knew that it would never come down in disgrace.”

In a twist of fate, Anderson, a retired general, returned to Charleston at war’s end to raise the flag again over the battered fortress (more about that below). An aside: Visitors to the fort today who take the first boat river over in the morning can help rangers raise the U.S. flag.

Q&A with Fort Sumter staffer about impact of book

I recently asked Brett Spaulding, chief of interpretation for Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park, about the renewed interest on the site brought by “The Demon of Unrest.” (At right, damaged flagpole after Confederate bombardment, Library of Congress)

Q. I am curious as to what kind of attention or questions the book has posed to rangers at the park. Do guests or historians bring up particular aspects of the book's scholarship?

A. “The Demon of Unrest” is frequently mentioned by visitors to Fort Sumter as a reason for their interest in visiting our site. Common questions are about the mindsets of the major players of the pre-Civil War standoff – the courage and inner conflict of Major Robert Anderson, and the march to war among both hardcore secessionists and typical white Charlestonians.

Q. Did the park provide any resources or materials for Larson? Did the staff learn new things from the book that might be helpful with interpretation?

A. Fort Sumter & Fort Moultrie NHP was not involved in the research or writing of “The Demon of Unrest”, though writer Erik Larson visited the fort in the spring of 2024. The book reinforced existing research on the environment of pre-war Charleston, and helped visitors make connections between influential “fire-eater” secessionists and the crisis at Fort Sumter.

Q. The storm flag in particular: Have you learned anything new about it? What details does the park have on its status and location during the bombardment?

A. The book, unfortunately, gives an inaccurate impression of which of our historic flags flew during the bombardment. On page 10, Larson refers to Anderson, within an hour of the bombardment, raising a flag “twenty feet high by thirty-six long” over Fort Sumter. However, a New York Times article dated May 21, 1861, citing conversations with Major Anderson, specifically states that Anderson flew the smaller of his two flags. The smaller of the two flags in our collection, the storm flag, measures ten by twenty feet and was the original flag that flew during the bombardment. Based on historic images of the fort, we believe the flagpole’s original location to be near the left flank of the fort, not far from the fort’s modern-day entrance. (The larger garrison flag was taken down shortly before the bombardment and replaced by the sturdier storm flag.)

Storm flag, top, garrison flag and the Confederate Palmetto Guard flag (NPS)

Q. The Palmetto Guard flag -- Have you learned anything new about it? Did Edmund Ruffin carry it into the fort and hold it during Anderson's surrender? Do you have any idea where it was made and when?

A. We do not have further information on the origins of the Palmetto Guard flag. The earliest citation we have found for it is The New York Times article of December 1, 1860.

Edmund Ruffin’s presence in the Palmetto Guard is backed up by the historical record. We do not have evidence to dispute that the Guard chose to let Ruffin bear the flag – he was a well-known secessionist leader and had been given the honor of firing the first shot from their battery. Contemporary accounts do place Ruffin in the fort on April 14, the day of the ceremony.

Q. Can you please tell me where all three flags are currently being stored, and in what fashion (tube, flat, etc.)? (At left, one of the flags being removed in 2023, NPS photo)

A. The Palmetto flag and the storm flag are both stored in our curatorial facility. The garrison flag is stored in a trusted specialty art storage facility in Texas via government contract due to its immense size and more fragile nature. All three flags are stored and were professionally packed by a team of conservators, museum staff and art movers. The flags are interleaved with and wrapped with archival materials and are stored rolled an archival tube for preservation purposes. 

Q.  I know the Harpers Ferry Center experts have said they all will need some kind of work, mounts, repairs, new frames, etc. at some point. Has any of that work begun, or is it too early?

A. The garrison flag specifically has been identified as needing additional conservation work. Plans for this work have been prepared but will not go into effect until the permanent home for this flag is ready (this includes facility and exhibit renovations). This is to ensure the flag is packed and moved as few times as possible while it transitions from its current storage unit to the conservation lab, and finally to its permanent home. We are currently speculating that this work may be able to be scheduled in approximately three years.

Q. How long do you think each banner will be kept in the dark, so to speak?

A. Currently, the answer to this question is uncertain. The park does not plan on returning any flags to exhibit at Fort Sumter specifically due to the difficulty with accessing this site in the event of an emergency, and the higher difficulty with safely moving the flags to and from this site. The flags could go on exhibit at other sites and through other means. The most likely involves ongoing plans for a redesign of exhibit spaces at Liberty Square. 

Q. Has any decision or further discussion been had on the fate of the three flags?

A. Discussions about the flags are active and ongoing. The park is devoted to ensuring that all flags are properly cared for and stored. The garrison flag has been the largest point of discussion and planning since it is the only flag currently off site and in need of conservation. The Palmetto and storm flags are both stable, and their future plans will be determined when exhibit renovations are scheduled and planned.

POSTSCRIPT: Collector has flag-raising relic

Storm flag (waving behind white pole) about to be raised in 1865 (Library of Congress)

Glen Hayes of New York has collected Gettysburg artifacts and memorabilia for about 57 years (more on that in a future post), but he also has a few Fort Sumter-related items.

The most prominent is a souvenir from April 14, 1865, when Anderson, 59, and his son returned to the fort to again raise the storm flag he took with him in 1861. In June 2023, Military Images magazine wrote about ferns, loose flowers and bouquets that had been placed near the flag before its raising, a symbol of a restored union.

Hayes bought the relic that features mounted remnants of the flora and a portrait of Anderson and an uncommon photograph taken inside the fort that day, showing the large flag attached to two poles decorated with bunting.

The Military Images article states Anderson cried and told the large crowd that it had been “the cherished wish of my heart” to restore the flag to its rightful place. With him was Peter Hart, the man who reattached the flag during the bombardment four years before.

Photo of Robert Anderson by Brady (Courtesy Glen Hayes) / Storm flag (Library of Congress)

“With the reading of Psalms concluded, Hart stepped forward carrying a mailbag that contained the original flag, nail holes and all. At this the crowd broke into a tumult of cheers. Three Navy sailors attached the flag to a halyard; they added roses, mock orange blossoms, and an evergreen wreath,” wrote Larson.

Hayes told the Picket in an email he bought the item from a relic dealer in about 1981. The caption reads: “Some of the leaves & ferns that fell from the boquet on the flag raised in position from where the Confederates made us take it down at Fort Sumpter SC in the Civil War. 1865”

The maker of the collage is not known.

“I purchased it because it was a good example of the end of the Civil War. Also, the relic is what you would call a ‘silent witness’ to the events of that day,” Hayes said. “Also, because it had the uncommon scene of the actual flag as it was being raised. It is ironic looking at the picture and seeing all the happy people in the photo, they not knowing that that evening Pres. Lincoln would be assassinated. Also, that Lincoln had been invited to the ceremony but couldn't attend. How history could have changed if he went.”

Gun tool for Austrian weapon (Courtesy Glen Hayes)

Hayes years ago acquired a piece of wood from the Star of the West, a vessel Confederates fired upon in January 1861 when it attempted to supply the Federal garrison, an episode thoroughly documented in “The Demon of Unrest.”

The other item is a gun tool for a model 1854 Austrian Lorenz rifle. “Both sides used that rifle but seeing how the Confederates occupied Fort Sumter for 4 years it was probably from a Confederate soldier,” Hayes told the Picket.

The new Fort Fisher visitor center, opening Sept. 27, will tell a wider story. Crews at the North Carolina Civil War site are rushing to finish recreated earthworks

New visitor center, Civil War map along staircase to the second floor and a colorized version of a Timothy O'Sullivan photograph of a damaged Fort Fisher traverse (FFSHS)

(Editor's note: The park announced Sept. 20 the opening is indefinitely postponed due to flooding damage from a tropical system)

A new and larger visitor center at Fort Fisher below Wilmington, N.C., will provide a broader and more people-centric history than the previous venue, officials said.

The state historic site near Kure Beach recently announced the two-story visitor center and its museum will open on Sept. 27. The park closed in April for construction of the 20,000-square-foot visitor center and for an usual rebuilding of earthworks.

“There are a few more items in the Civil War section, but the new sections covering the time before Fort Fisher as well as the span of time between the Civil War and WWII are where we had to bring in the most new artifacts,” assistant site manager Chad Jefferds told the Picket.

Fort Fisher was built on the peninsula between the Cape Fear River and the Atlantic Ocean, south of Wilmington. It is best known as a crucial coastal bastion for the Confederacy.

A Whitworth gun on the first floor of the visitor center (FFSHS)

On Jan. 15, 1865, after a naval bombardment, the Federal army attacked from the western, river side while Marines pushed in from the northeast bastion. The fall of the “Gibraltar of the South” cut off blockade runners and the last supply line through Wilmington to Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. U.S. Colored Troops were among those taking part in the attack.

Essentially everything between Shepherd’s Battery on the western end of the fort’s land face and the center sally port were the scenes of intense fighting during the US Army’s assault. The fighting went from along the traverses from west to east and was often hand-to-hand.

Fort Fisher’s use during World War II helped the Allied cause but destroyed some of its familiar defensive traverses. They were removed to make way for an airstrip when the area was used for training anti-aircraft and coastal artillery units.

Construction crews are working to complete recreations of three traverses, bombproofs, a magazine and the sally port, Jefferds said. “The dirt being brought in has to dry out to a certain level before it can be used, but the weather has not been conducive. Hopefully it will be ready for our grand opening, but it’s no guarantee at this point.”

Sally port tunnel on far left during traverse reconstruction. At far right is historic traverse (FFSHS)

With the three traverses will come two gun emplacements, which will each have a heavy cannon, along with two 12-pounder Napoleons in the center sally port.

The new visitor center stands about 100 yards from the fort wall. It is just north of the east-west line mounds of earth known as traverses that were part of the defenses. Much of the eastern part of the fort has been claimed by the ocean. 

“Not only will visitors be able to see the majority of the remaining traverses from the second floor, they will also be able to see them as they approach from the parking lot. This is one of the main reasons for the first floor being perpendicular to the second floor,” said Jefferds.(bombproof recreation, below)

The visitor center’s first floor has a welcome desk, gift shop, restrooms and staff offices.

The second floor houses the main exhibit gallery as well as a temporary exhibit gallery that will change regularly. It  is home to an information desk, an orientation theater, restrooms and a multipurpose room that can be used for a classroom space, banquets or wedding receptions.

Among the wall displays is a colorized Timothy O’Sullivan photo of the fort taken shortly after its fall.

“That particular photo is of the 4^th traverse along the land face of the fort, likely where the fort’s commander Col. William Lamb was wounded,” said Jefferds. “It really shows the carnage that abounded here after the U.S. Navy’s bombardment and ensuing land battle, with the broken cannons and debris scattered all around.”

I asked him whether the venue will tell the same story, with some twists.

“The story is the same and Fort Fisher is obviously the central theme, but the way it’s told is different. We’ve tried to tell the story of Fort Fisher through the eyes of the people who lived, worked, fought and died here. We’ve also enhanced the coverage of the time before the Civil War as well as the time after, all the way through WWII when the fort served as a training facility for antiaircraft and coastal artillery units.”

Parking and admission at the site is free. Hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. The building is wheelchair-accessible and an elevator goes to the second floor.