ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, June 24, 1996 TAG: 9606240004
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
Every student of American history has heard of Robert E. Lee, J.E.B. Stuart and Thomas J. ``Stonewall'' Jackson. Hardly anyone remembers A.N. Erskine and J.P. Wilson.
Erskine, Wilson and tens of thousands of others were the grunts of the Civil War - the soldiers who slogged over mountains, ate rancid food and fought and died in a hundred different battles.
The Museum of the Confederacy is trying to show the war through the eyes of the common soldier in a new exhibit, ``The Hope of Eight Million People: The Confederate Soldier.''
``I tell you I am Nearly Broken down,'' Wilson, a soldier from North Carolina, wrote in a letter home. ``... my feet is sore & I have rhumatism in my Nees & ankels ... I Don't think I can Stand Teas hard marches long.''
Instead of using the usual terse museum labels to identify exhibits, the new show uses the soldiers' own words to describe their lives.
``For a lot of these boys, this was the first time they'd been five miles away from their hometowns,'' said Robert Hancock, museum curator and organizer of the exhibit. ``We wanted to give the audience the idea of what it was like for these guys.''
Hancock and others spent months combing through the museum's extensive archives, looking through yellowed and fading letters. Many of the letters were donated by aging veterans or their families when the museum opened a century ago in Richmond, the Confederacy's capital.
``We even got to know the family members through the letters,'' he said. ``It was a very personal experience.''
The letters cover all aspects of a soldier's life, including down time away from battle.
``ther is all kind of amusement in camps,'' wrote William S. Woods of the 20th Alabama Infantry, ``Some singing comice songues Some Fidling Some Dancing some trying to see Hoo can tell the Bigist Lie.''
While the rest of the museum concentrates on Lee and other generals and has displays of shining cavalry swords and gold-braided uniforms, the exhibit on the enlisted men shows how tough life was at the bottom of the ranks.
A biscuit that has preserved its shape to this day testifies to the inedible nature of much of the soldiers' food.
``Nasty stinking blue stuff, a dog will hardly smell it,'' Edwin H. Fay of the Minden Rangers wrote in describing the pickled beef soldiers were fed.
Many of the men joined up enthusiastically in 1861, treating war as a great adventure. The romance quickly disappeared after their first battle.
``Yesterday evening we was in one of the hardest fought battles ever,'' wrote Erskine. ``On going round the battlefield with a candle searching for my friends I could hear on all side the dreadful groans of the wounded and their heart piercing cries for water and assistance. ... Oh the awful scene. ... May I never see anymore such in life. ... I assure you I am heartily sick of soldiering.''
Hancock says the rebel soldiers' message endures.
``My impression is, for veterans of World War II, Korea or even Vietnam, the experiences haven't changed all that much,'' he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 62 linesby CNB