(
By Andrea Hughes, Educator/Curator of American Collections
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War. Something that happened so long ago can seem pretty far away and not that real to us. One of the things I love about being a curator and working with the collection is getting to work with artifacts that have the power to make us feel more connected to the past. There are a few Civil War things in the collection that I think illustrate that really well.
The most unusual item is a piece of hardtack. Hardtack was a big part of a Union soldier’s diet. It was a kind of hard cracker that was meant to keep for a long time. They were so dry and hard by the time many of them were eaten that soldiers called them “tooth dullers.” There are rumors that some Civil War hardtack was used in the Spanish American War almost 35 years later. That may not seem that far-fetched considering that this piece has lasted until now!
During the Civil War, many regimental bands used boys as drummers because that meant that more men were available to fight. As far as we know, Edward Black of Indianapolis was the youngest drummer boy in the war. He enlisted on July 24, 1861 in the 1st Regiment, 21st Indiana Volunteers. He had celebrated his eighth birthday just two months earlier.
After President Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, his body was carried by train from Washington, DC to Springfield, Illinois for his funeral. Along the way, the train made stops so people could pay their final respects. This star came from a carriage that took the coffin from the train through pouring rain to the Indiana State House, where close to 50,000 people attended a public viewing. The star was removed from the carriage by Samuel Graham, a railroad employee at Union Station, who was serving as a special officer that day.
I’m so grateful that people chose to save these objects and later donate them to the museum. I can’t help but wonder what kinds of things will be in the collection 150 years from now that will tell stories about what life was like in 2011.
