EXHIBIT SCRIPT
TITLE PANEL: AN AMERICAN TURNING POINT: THE CIVIL WAR IN VIRGINIA
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From 1861 through 1865, Virginia stood at the center of a military and social revolution. How we
define freedom, liberty, patriotism, and nation today is directly related to the diverse experiences of
the individuals who participated in the war.
This exhibit encourages visitors to consider how a single event, separated from us by 150 years, so
fundamentally reshaped American society that its impact is still experienced today. What was gained
by the Civil War, what was lost, and what is left for us to resolve?
Look for the QR-Codes throughout the exhibit and unlock additional content with your mobile device.
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http://cw150.vahistorical.org.
SECTION 1: WHY WAR?
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“Bombardment of Fort Sumter by the Batteries of the Confederate States, April 13, 1861,” Harper’s
Weekly image, April 27, 1861
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General Map of the United States, Showing the Area and Extent of the Free & Slave-holding States, and
the Territories of the Union: also the Boundaries of the Seceding States, engraved by W. & A.K.
Johnston, Edinburgh, c. 1861, Library of Congress
QUOTE:
“I look upon the present crisis as a war of sentiment and opinion by one form of society against another
form of society.”
- Virginia senator James M. Mason, Senate Debate of the Conciliation Bill, February 4, 1861
An American Turning Point: The Civil War in Virginia
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Slavery caused the war, but the war was not begun to free the slaves. The war was begun to determine
whether the Confederate States of America would be allowed to break away as an independent nation.
Only later did the conflict become one of liberation.
Why did the South want independence? Southern wealth was mostly invested in slaves and slaveworked land. Abraham Lincoln, newly elected president, led a party pledged to ban slavery in new
states. That would leave the slave states a dwindling minority too weak in Congress to prevent
abolition of slavery.
Seven slaveholding states seceded following the election. When Fort Sumter, the United States Army
garrison in South Carolina, was taken by the Confederates, Lincoln called on all loyal states—Virginia
included—for militia to suppress the rebellion. Although not all slaveholding states of the Upper South
seceded, Virginia did, refusing to participate in an invasion of the Deep South.
SECTION 2: SPEED OR STRENGTH?
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Charles Hoffbauer, “Stonewall” Jackson Reviewing His Troops, from the Mural Military Paintings, 191220, Virginia Historical Society
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Encampment of the Army of the Potomac at Cumberland Landing on Pamunkey River, 1861,
photograph, Library of Congress
QUOTE:
“To move swiftly, strike vigorously, and secure all the fruits of victory is the secret of successful war.”
- “Stonewall” Jackson, 1863
Early in 1862, Confederate general Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson decided to “move swiftly and strike
vigorously” against larger Union forces in the Shenandoah Valley. At the same time, Union general
George B. McClellan landed the largest army in North American history on the Virginia Peninsula but
moved it cautiously toward the Confederate capital.
Jackson’s success and McClellan’s failure demonstrate that victory comes to those who concentrate
their forces at the right place and time. Each side had a chance to win the war in 1862, but the longer it
continued, the less speed mattered and the more strength did—not just in manpower but also in
money and material.
SECTION 3: THE FIRST MODERN WAR?
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Robert Knox Sneden, Headquarters of III Army Corps, Major General S. P. Heintzelman, U.S.A., at
Savage’s House, Savage’s Station, Va., June 27, 1862, during the Battle of Gaines Mill, 1862, pencil, ink,
and watercolor wash, Virginia Historical Society
An American Turning Point: The Civil War in Virginia
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Prof. Thaddeus S. Lowe Observing the Battle from His Balloon “Intrepid,” May 31, 1862, Library of
Congress
QUOTE:
“War as this country has never seen, or, until recently, has never dreamed of.”
- Jubal Early, after the Virginia vote on secession, April 17, 1861
Muzzle-loading firearms and communication by drum, flag, and bugle were holdovers from the past,
but many of the essential elements of modern warfare were in place by 1865. Rifled weapons
increased the range of firearms, and telegraphy allowed distant armies to communicate and
coordinate. Railroads moved armies faster than before, and iron ships and land mines made their
debut. Reconnaissance balloons took war to the skies.
By applying the industrial revolution to the science of killing, the Civil War was a turning point between
the limited combat of professional armies of the 1700s and the “total” mobilization of World Wars I
and II.
SECTION 4: MEN OF COLOR TO ARMS?
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Company E, 4th U.S. Colored Infantry, at Fort Lincoln, William Morris Smith, c. 1863-66, Library of
Congress
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Picket Station of Colored Troops near Dutch Gap Canal, November 1864, Library of Congress
QUOTE:
"Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letter, U.S… and a musket on his shoulder and
bullets in his pocket, there is no power on earth that can deny that he has earned the right to
citizenship."
- Frederick Douglass, August 1863
When the war began, many African Americans—North and South—volunteered to serve as soldiers.
United by a belief in the inferiority of black people and fearful of racial strife, white Americans rejected
the idea of arming black men.
African American enlistment in Union armies began in July 1862; ultimately 200,000 black men served.
The vast majority were former slaves who sought to strike at slavery and improve their position in
society.
A few southern soldiers and civilians suggested as early as January 1864 that the Confederacy enlist
slaves as soldiers, but most southerners disagreed. One Confederate politician noted that, “if slaves
will make good soldiers, then our whole theory of slavery is wrong.” Desperate to avert defeat, the
An American Turning Point: The Civil War in Virginia
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Confederacy authorized the enlistment of slaves on March 13, 1865, too late to affect the outcome of
the war.
SECTION 5: THE CAMPAIGNS
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[map of Virginia (western counties included) with campaigns diagramed]
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Paul D. Philippoteaux, Battle of Five Forks, c. 1885, oil on canvas, Virginia Historical Society, given in
memory of Peter Charles Bance, Jr., by his mother and father in loving memory
QUOTE:
“Our own dear Virginia is destined to be the battleground.”
- Amanda Virginia Edmonds, Fauquier County, 23 April 1861
The easiest way to destroy the secessionist movement seemed to be to capture Richmond, the seat of
the Confederate government, only a hundred miles from Washington. “On to Richmond” became not
only a popular recruitment slogan in the North but in fact the military objective of Union commanders.
For four years, a succession of generals moved against Richmond, only to be thwarted by tenacious
southern defenders. Capture of the enemy’s capital was eventually replaced by a more attainable
objective sought by both sides: destruction of the enemy’s army. The long conflict turned large
portions of the Virginia landscape into a setting of death and desolation.
SECTION 6: WHO FREED THE SLAVES?
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Thomas Moran, Slave Hunt, 1864, oil on paper mounted on board, Virginia Historical Society, Lora
Robins Collection of Virginia Art
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Fugitive African Americans Fording the Rappahannock River, Timothy H. O’Sullivan, August 1862,
Library of Congress
QUOTE:
“There will be some black men who can remember that, with silent tongue, and clenched teeth, and
steady eye, and well-poised bayonet, they have helped mankind on to this great consummation.”
- Abraham Lincoln, 1863
Two years of fighting changed what the war was about. Beginning in 1863, the North no longer fought
only to save the Union but also to end slavery. Ending slavery was the only way to win the war and not
have to fight again.
Generations of Americans hailed Abraham Lincoln as “The Great Emancipator.” In recent decades
some historians have minimized Lincoln’s role and argued that the enslaved people freed themselves.
An American Turning Point: The Civil War in Virginia
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Slaves did take the initiative to escape, but reaching Washington, D.C., or the Ohio River was as
impractical as ever. In Virginia, it was the presence of Union lines—of both Lincoln’s armies and a
receptive Union garrison at Fort Monroe—that made escape easier. After January 1, 1863, Lincoln’s
Emancipation Proclamation and its promise of just treatment inspired a dramatic increase in the
number of escape attempts.
SECTION 7: REFUGEES
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Refugees Leaving the Old Homestead, c. 1861, George N. Barnard, 1862, Library of Congress
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Cumberland Landing, Va., Group of “Contrabands” at Foller’s House, James F. Gibson, March 14, 1862,
Library of Congress
QUOTE:
“The number of refugees increases fearfully as our army falls back…. Why [do] they not stay and protect
their property – ‘How can they?’”
- Judith McGuire, a refugee, 15 July 1863
The prospect of life under federal military occupation caused some Virginians to abandon their homes
and become refugees. Two-thirds of the residents of Alexandria fled, as did one-third of those in
Norfolk. The exodus was less on the Eastern Shore, where life continued largely uninterrupted, and in
the western counties, where Union garrisons were so few that secessionists had little reason to flee.
Residents of “no-man’s-land”—the area between federal occupied territory and the Confederate
frontier—often had little choice but to leave. Foraging squads and scouting patrols regularly swept the
countryside. Residents were harassed one day by northern troops and the next by pro-Confederate
guerrillas. Both stole food, animals, and fencing for firewood. Agriculture was debilitated by the exodus
of slaves. Trade stopped. Stragglers controlled the roads.
SECTION 8: THE CONFEDERATE FRONTIER
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Alfred Wordsworth Thompson, Drainesville, 1861, pencil and chalk, Virginia Historical Society, bequest
of Paul Mellon
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Fredericksburg, Va. Ruins of Houses, c. 1862-63, Library of Congress
QUOTE:
“Poor Virginia! … Her women and children are starving and outraged … her fields have been
desolated…. The horrors of war are not all to be found in the battle-field.”
- Union Captain Charles Francis Adams, Jr., 1863
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Placement of the Confederate frontier was determined by decisions in Richmond as to how much
territory it could hope to defend. The frontier shifted with the subsequent movement of large Union
and Confederate armies that periodically overran it. Inevitably, residents of this region suffered severe
hardships. They were terrorized by actual or anticipated combat, their food and property was often
stolen or destroyed; the landscape around them was ravaged. Slaves seized the opportunity either to
escape to freedom or to demand improved conditions.
SECTION 9: THE CONFEDERATE INTERIOR
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Lefevre Cranstone, Richmond, c. 1860, watercolor, Virginia Historical Society
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Petersburg, Va. Courthouse, 1865, Library of Congress
QUOTE:
“The continuation of the Yankee blockade threatens more danger to our cause … than do the Yankee
arms & armies & fleets.”
- Edmund Ruffin, spring 1862
Residents of the Confederate interior increasingly suffered the hardships of deprivation and despair.
Life in the major cities of Richmond and Petersburg was altered abruptly by a mass influx of troops,
profiteers, and refugees, followed by the wounded and sick from the battlefront. Shortages of food
and materials brought skyrocketing inflation. In Richmond, Union prisoners crowded the city, and the
seemingly endless procession of funerals brought grief. Those opposed to secession were largely
silenced. Many free African Americans felt compelled to contribute to the war effort. Both slaves and
free blacks were impressed to serve labor needs of the Confederacy. In the countryside, food was
taken to feed the army. In some remote areas, support for the Confederate cause diminished; army
deserters found refuge there.
SECTION 10: DID THE CIVIL WAR END AT APPOMATTOX?
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Ruins of Gallego Flour Mills, Richmond, Va., April 1865, Library of Congress
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Dead Confederate Soldier in Trenches before Petersburg, 1865, Thomas C. Roche, April 3, 1865, Library
of Congress
QUOTE:
“We shall never any of us be the same as we have been.”
- Lucy Rebecca Buck, Front Royal, 18 April 1862
Robert E. Lee’s army had become the embodiment of Confederate nationalism, and after its surrender
other southern forces soon gave up. The Virginia landscape—scarred by empty fortifications,
An American Turning Point: The Civil War in Virginia
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decimated forests, ruined homes and farms, and vast graveyards—recovered in a generation. More
enduring was widespread poverty and the emotional scars of defeat, occupation, and subjugation felt
by whites and the horrors of slavery remembered by blacks.
Freedom as Confederate independence failed, but the Confederate commemoration continues to this
day in the South. Although black Virginians were no longer enslaved, equality remained an unfulfilled
goal for nearly a century. Despite the additions of amendments to the U.S. Constitution, equal
opportunity was denied until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and ‘60s forced meaningful
change. White southern identity that had been based on racial supremacy finally disappeared. The
successes of the Civil Rights Movement made possible the election in 2008 of the first African American
president.