As we pack up to leave tomorrow morning, Hillary writes.
This volunteer opportunity is coming to a close, and I would like to share some of the snapshots we have gleaned from our experience. Our last project - digitizing original manuscripts, letters, ledgers, and other documents has been quite amazing. Carol lines up the camera, centering the lens on the document, adjusting the four lights, and I wear the white gloves to turn the pages. We have been working our way through the ledgers of the letters received by the Superintendent of Stones River National Cemetery, starting in the 1870s. The National Cemetery was created about sixty years before the battlefield became a national park. As we read the ledger, while taking the photographs, we are struck b y the beautiful cursive hand-writing. Does anyone remember penmanship classes?? The writing style is military formal; letters are begun, "I have the honor of responding to your letter which was received on ... and am pleased to inform you ..."
We have learned about an aging mule, twenty-years-old, "broken" and in need of replacement, but held dearly in the Superintendent's heart. He requests instruction on how to handle this. Another letter responded to a request from the Secretary of War (cemeteries were under the War Department!) to investigate a report of the discovery of the remains of a Union soldier in a field about 26 miles away, about 28 years after the war ended. We read how he hired a horse and buggy to get over to Rover, Tennessee, to investigate this report and indeed was able to confirm the report, disinter the remains, "fetch it over to Stones River" and re-inter. These letters provide minute snapshots into the formative years of Stones River National Cemetery, now the resting place of over 6100 Civil War victims.
Another snapshot has to do with the many and various points of view of the visitors who bring their own stories. What was most unusual this week is the man who informed me that the sign indicating that 81,000 Americans fought here was "wrong." He proceeded to inform me that he was from the North - Minnesota, in fact - and that southerners were not American. I told him that we were all Americans, that I am also from the North, and that this battle was between Americans who held very different perspectives on the subject of slavery. It was rather than odd sense to have to defend the South against his charge of "traitors" but as Park employees, we are committed to telling the Park story and allow a variety of opinions on a sensitive subject, not making it "wrong."
The last snapshot is that we actually got to see the original document of loyalty to the Union that southerners were forced to sign if they wanted to operate a business in the South. It included a statement of loyalty and commitment to the Union as well as a promised not to own slaves. This document was required of all those in the South wanted to operate businesses, even preachers, and failure to sign could result in imprisonment or inability to operate a business. One story is of a Nashville banker who refused to sign and was imprisoned for about a year, returning to discover that his bank no longer existed.
These are our parting snapshots.
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