“Common People in Uncommon Times: The Civil War Experience in Tennessee” will be on display through Sept. 16 at the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center.
The exhibit is the official traveling exhibition of the Tennessee Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission and organized by the Tennessee State Museum.
Experiences of Tennesseans impacted by the Civil War are told through personal stories of some of the participants. Their tales represent a diverse array of personalities including Confederate soldiers, Union sympathizers, African-Americans, women and others.
This pictorial narrative of personal struggle and endurance during the Civil War is presented on 10 graphic panels taken from the Tennessee State Museum’s collection of photographs and artifacts from the era, as well as from other collections across the state. Each panel portrays a different theme.
The exhibition also explores the home front through the stories of people like John Fielder, a store keeper in Henderson County; Kate Carney a defiant secessionist in Murfreesboro; and C.A. Haun, a noted potter from Greene County.
Photographs and archival materials help highlight several different African-Americans and their experience both on the home front and the battle front. Profiled individuals include Allen James Walker, who escaped slavery and joined the 7th U.S. Heavy Artillery; Samuel Lowry, a free black who returned to Nashville to serve as a chaplain, and Laura Ann Cansler, who worked to educate former slaves in Knoxville.
For more information, visit www.westtnheritage.com or call 731-779-9000.
# # #
Explore more at tnvacation.com and join other Tennessee travelers by following “TNVacation” on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube.