Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 19, 1993 TAG: 9302190252
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BECKY HEPLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
GRAY-BLUE WEEKEND DRAWS THE EXPERTS
This weekend on the Virginia Tech campus, it will only look as if you've been caught up in a time warp, stuck in 1863 - what with the living-history Civil War camp and the strains of 19th century music drifting over the scene.Actually, it's the Alumni Association's second annual Civil War Weekend and all you Rhett and Scarlett wannabes are out of luck - all tickets have been sold.
"When they proposed to do this last year for the first time, my initial reaction was negative," said Civil War authority James Robertson, Tech history professor and author. "I didn't think we could find 25 people who'd want to come to Blacksburg in February. But it was a success and this year's event has been completely booked, too."
The weekend, which Robertson calls a chance to do a little postgraduate work, includes seminars, book signings, musical entertainment, a living-history museum and a showing of the movie "Glory."
The featured speakers include Joseph Glatthaar of the University of Houston and E.E. "Josh" Billings, retired from the Library of Congress and owner of a phenomenal Civil War library which he is donating to Tech's Newman Library.
Talks by Robertson and Crandall Shifflett, a history professor at Tech, also are on the program.
"This year's program didn't really have a theme, but since it came during Black History Month, we called upon Dr. Glatthaar, who wrote the best book on blacks in the Civil War, to join us," Robertson said.
Glatthaar will introduce the movie and give another talk on the conflict between Jefferson Davis and Joseph E. Johnston. He also will address the student body as part of Black History Month.
Robertson said that Billings has had a lifelong interest in the Civil War. He has pursued that interest by collecting books about the war, amassing more than 7,000 volumes worth a perhaps-conservatively estimated $1 million.
The disposition of that library was of increasing importance to him. He rejected the idea of sending it to his alma mater, University of Puget Sound, in favor of Tech because of his 20-year friendship with Robertson and the university.
"It will be a good complement to our own Civil War collection," said Robertson. "He has been collecting from a Northern perspective, so there will be very little duplication. When it is in place, Virginia Tech's collection will be second only to the Library of Congress's collection on the Civil War."
Billings will speak about collecting Civil War books.
Shifflett will speak about the Civil War in Appalachia.
"Sometimes the war effort in Appalachia gets lost in the battles of Manassas or Gettysburg, and Southwest Virginia is ignored," Robertson said. "Yet, the contributions from this area were enormous."
There will be a genealogy workshop at Newman Library to show people how to use the resources at Tech to search for a family's Civil War roots.
Robertson will be speaking about Stonewall Jackson, religion during the Civil War and period music.
"We remember the happy songs from that period, such as `Dixie' or `Yellow Rose of Texas,' but actually, the most popular songs in those days were the sad ones, like `Just Before the Battle, Mother,'" he said.
"Sometimes, the night before a battle, a soldier would write about hearing a song start on one side of the battlefield, then someone from the other side would pick it up; and before long there would be a mighty chorus," he said. "Who knows how many of those voices were stilled the next day after the battle?"
Robertson's talk Friday night about music is a prelude to the musical entertainment of period music by Quantum Brass of Virginia Tech and by Trillium, a Blacksburg group.
The success of the first two years pretty much guarantees that the Virginia Tech Civil War Weekend will become an annual event, so if you were disappointed to not get tickets this year, plan early to sign up for next year. The advance word is that the theme may be Civil War medicine.