Darrell Laurant: Civil War chaplain museum to feature two new exhibits

From NewsAdvance: Darrell Laurant: Civil War chaplain museum to feature two new exhibits

The chaplains, North and South, who worked the front lines of the American Civil War didn’t have to muster up images of fire and brimstone — in many cases, it was all around them. And hell was as close as the next battlefield.

“There was definitely an incentive to listen to the chaplain’s message about eternal things,” said Alan Farley.

Farley still delivers that message, albeit as a Civil War re-enactor in chaplain’s garb. He also provided the collection of artifacts that jump-started the National Civil War Chaplain’s Museum on the Liberty University campus.

“A friend of mine named Scott Hartzell and I had spent 10 years gathering these items,” Farley said. “We went to Civil War shows, antique shops, on eBay, everything we could think of. A couple of times, I bought a book in an antique store and found a Civil War gospel tract tucked away inside it. Scott had the same experience.

“Then, one day, we looked at each other and said, ‘We’ve got to find a place to keep all this stuff rather than in our houses.’ Not long after that, unfortunately, Scott died of an illness.”

By then, however, Liberty University history professor Kenny Rowlette became interested in the project.

“I had known Alan for a long time and was always fascinated by his chaplain’s depiction,” Rowlette said. “We had talked a good bit about the possibility of having a museum dedicated to those who ministered to the troops during the Civil War, and it just seemed like a good time to do it.”

The college administration, including Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr., was supportive, Rowlette said, and the initial chaplain’s museum — which, incidentally, is the first of its kind to focus only on the Civil War — started out in a former classroom in the DeMoss building.

“We were a little hard to find there,” Rowlette said, “and parking wasn’t good.”

So when a small convenience store attached to Doc’s Diner (an on-campus restaurant) closed and Falwell offered the space for the museum, Rowlette, Farley and fellow museum organizer Cline Hall (also a Liberty history professor) were ecstatic.

“We turned a convenience store into a museum in a matter of weeks, “ Rowlette said, “and we’re working on a plan to use every square foot of space.”

In case you’ve ever wondered whose side God was on in the War Between the States, you won’t find the answer here — the Chaplain’s Museum is relentlessly non-partisan.

“We have information on chaplains from both sides,” Rowlette said. “We have Protestant ministers, Catholic priests and even rabbis.”

After all, the job was basically the same — to educate, comfort, evangelize and, Rowlette adds, “get men ready to go out and kill each other. You can’t forget that part of it.”

And when the killing was done, it was the chaplains who walked through the chaotic aftermath, praying for the wounded, administering last rites and performing funerals.

According to Farley, more than 150 chaplains (out of an estimated 30,000) died performing their duties — some were killed by wayward bullets and shells, others worn down by the rigors of the assignment.

“Many of these were older men,” Farley said, “and all the marching, sleeping on the ground and exposure to disease often broke their health.”

The museum contains photographs, letters, Bibles, paintings, religious tracts, a rare lap organ used in Sunday services, ID buttons that were the ancestors of military dog tags and a wealth of information on the United States Christian Commission, directed by Henry Ward Beecher.

“Rusty Hicks, one of our board members, has discovered quite a few key items for us,” said Rowlette. “He just has an eye for this.”

This summer, the museum will offer two new exhibits — a “mourning room” with period furniture and decorations (including a cross formed from the woven hair of dead Confederate soldiers), and an exhibit on Civil War sharpshooters featuring Rev. Lorenzo Barbour, chaplain to the Confederate Berdan’s Sharpshooters.

All of them, no doubt, felt God was with them