By Sarah Vogelsong
Just over 150 years ago, a young private in the Virginia Confederate Signal Corps named James Montgomery wrote his last letter home to his father in Mississippi, the ink of his pen mixing with the blood that dripped from his fatal arm wound.
“I know death is inevitable,” wrote Montgomery. “I am very weak but I write to you because I know you would be delighted to read a word from your dying son.”
On April 24, the largely forgotten stories of Montgomery and others who lived and died during the Civil War were brought vividly to life for some 300 Caroline County 4th graders who had the chance to visit the Virginia Civil War 150 HistoryMobile.
A nonprofit museum on wheels borne from a partnership of the Virginia Tourism Corporation, the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, and the General Assembly’s Sesquicentennial of the Civil War Commission, the HistoryMobile spent three days in Caroline this past weekend as part of the county’s Sesquicentennial Commemoration of the Capture of Lincoln’s Assassin. Open to the public for much of the weekend, it devoted Friday to giving Caroline students a glimpse of history.
“We wanted to show how everyday people were affected by the Civil War,” said Rusty Nix, a tour manager for the HistoryMobile who has been a part of the initiative since its founding in 2011. “We wanted to bring the stories of people who don’t get talked about so much.”
Those stories left vivid impressions on many students’ minds.
For Acacia Lindsey of Lewis Clark Elementary, it was Montgomery’s story that caught her imagination, while for classmate Emnet Waugh, it was the story of an African American slave who died from infection following the amputation of his arm and leg. And for Chris Wyche, it was the story of how the Freedmen’s Bureau helped distribute education and resources to former slaves.
“It makes a lot of things make more sense,” said Wyche of the HistoryMobile. “This stuff is really amazing.”
The traveling exhibit parked Friday at the Visitor’s Center. Students arrived in waves on buses and were first escorted inside the building for a private audience with Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, portrayed with verve and vigor by re-enactors Michael Krebs and Debra Ann Miller.
Together, Krebs and Miller brought students back in time, relating tales of going to school, how they met, and their life together.
The most important thing he ever learned, Krebs told the mostly riveted young audience, was “how to study.” With so many questions, and often very few teachers, he concluded, “I figured I’d better learn how to answer them myself.”
After the civilized atmosphere set by the 16th president and his wife, the HistoryMobile packed a punch. Upon entering, students found themselves in a dark room rimmed with the silhouettes of trees. As the door closed, the noise of battle suddenly filled the space and flashes of light showed a landscape at war, drawing shrieks from the excited group.
“It was pretty scary!” LCES student Mia Jackson later said, but admitted that “it was entertaining for me to actually see.”
“It really gives that educational component,” said Daryl Chesley, Caroline director of curriculum and instruction for secondary education. “The students have been exposed to this in one dimension … but then this brings it to life.”
With Standards of Learning assessments in social studies coming up for 4th graders, the HistoryMobile visit was well-timed.
“They’ll remember the experience,” said Chesley, “and then they’ll remember the content.”