Craig Hadley spent two years designing the new $3 million Tennessee Civil War Museum in Chattanooga. Hadley, shown Monday, Aug. 3, 1998, said the exhibits focus on the common soldier, not generals or great battles. AP Photo/Louis Sohn

New Civil War museum focuses on the common soldier

Web posted August 4, 1998

Associated Press

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- They spent most of their time marching, camping and waiting for battle. They had a one in 40 chance of being killed in action, but a one in 10 chance of dying of disease.

The new $3 million Tennessee Civil War Museum focuses on the life of the common soldier, showing the hardships everyday people faced in the conflict between the states.

``It's a bad habit for people who study the Civil War to focus on the generals or on the great battles alone,'' said Craig Hadley, who has spent two years designing the museum, set to open Saturday. ``I wanted a museum dedicated to the men and women who fought the war.''

The collection, worth about $1 million, includes swords, muskets and reproductions of uniforms worn by soldiers from the North and South.

One pistol, a .36-caliber Leech and Rigdon, is worth about $30,000. Only about 1,500 of those revolvers were made for the Confederacy, Hadley said.

But just as much of the 7,000-square-foot museum is spent explaining the daily lives of people who left their homes and families for years to join the war effort.

A series of two-minute films of Civil War re-enactors shows gruesome carnage and squalid living conditions that often led to dysentery and other fatal diseases.

Checkerboards, fishhooks, whistles and other items Confederate soldiers whittled while waiting for battle are on display.

An exhibit tells of 400 women who disguised themselves as men to join the army, and another explains how thousands of blacks fought for the South. Many were slaves brought to the army by their owners; others were free men.

Visitors can decode signals soldiers used in battle and read letters they sent home.

The final panel is a painting of a Union soldier handing a biscuit to a Confederate soldier.

``I wanted to show that this isn't just about a war,'' Hadley said. ``It's about reconciliation as well.''

Chattanooga was the perfect location for the museum, since key battles were fought here on Missionary Ridge, Lookout Mountain and the Chickamauga battlefield, Hadley said.

The for-profit museum is a project of four Chattanooga-area businessmen. About 100,000 visitors are expected in the first year, Hadley said. -- -- --

Tennessee Civil War Museum, 3914 St. Elmo Ave., at the base of Lookout Mountain, 423-821-4954. Hours: open 8 a.m. daily, closing times vary. Fees are $7.50 for adults, $6.50 for senior citizens and veterans, and $5 for children 4-12. Children under age 4 get in free of charge.