Museum exhibit examines fates of Confederate veterans

RICHMOND, Va. – The Museum of the Confederacy-Appomattox will host the opening of a new temporary exhibit titled: “When Johnny Comes Marching Home: Veterans in the Post-War South.”

Approximately 30 percent of the estimated 900,000 men who served in the Confederate army died in service; the other 70 percent returned home to their families, their jobs, their farms, and the rest of their lives. The years that Civil War soldiers spent in uniform shaped them. But the “Boys in Gray” returned to become the gray old men who rebuilt the South, dominated Southern society, business and politics for the ensuing half-century and commemorated their fallen comrades and heroes and the cause for which they fought.

Just as in wars of our own time, Civil War veterans who reentered society yet remained, as historian Bruce Catton described them, “men set apart.” Only other veterans could understand what they had endured.

This exhibit examines the lives of Confederate and Southern veterans as veterans, as citizens and as humans.

The Museum of the Confederacy-Appomattox is open 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., Sunday through Saturday. The museum is located at 159 Horseshoe Road, Appomattox, VA 24522.

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