Lessons from the Civil War, Pt. 2
Wayne’s Great-grampa Mart and great-uncle Robert were mustered into the Union army in Springfield, IL in August 1861. They trained there before heading to their first encampment at Cairo, IL in September 1861.
Lincoln Museum
If you ever find yourself in Springfield, be sure to visit the Lincoln Museum. The exhibits there provided a glimpse into society during the Civil War and gave us a deeper understanding of the issues being debated at the time. Two sections of the exhibit left a lasting impression on us.
One was a display of political cartoons critical of President Lincoln. The other was a short hall or passageway. As you walk through, you are bombarded from left and right with recordings of people making vehement arguments on the various issues surrounding the war. It reminded us a lot of the vitriolic presidential election we’d experienced months before. And those cartoons? I was surprised to find that today’s political cartoons are fairly tame compared to what President Lincoln endured.
The museum made me think hard was about the current divisions in our country. The Civil War was the end result of
unresolved division, of voices shouting at each other without taking time to listen and consider whether some of the 
opposing arguments may be valid, whether some opinions might have formed because of different life experiences, which make them valid for those who hold them.
Lincoln’s Tomb and Monument
Our next stop was Lincoln’s tomb and monument. What you see in the picture is not really his tomb. The casket containing his body is actually buried ten feet below ground level in a steel box covered with a concrete slab. The reason for all that is an 1867 attempt to steal his body. (You can read more about that here. It’s quite a story.) Outside the monument is a copper bust of Lincoln. You can see his
nose is quite shiny from people going up and rubbing it. For good luck, maybe?
Mary Todd Lincoln and three of their four sons are also entombed in the monument.
I’d always heard about Mrs. Lincoln going insane in her later years. What I didn’t know is that this poor woman buried three of her four sons, in addition to sitting next to her husband when he was assassinated. Honestly, how much grief can a woman take? No wonder she became mentally ill!
Camp Butler National Cemetery
Lastly, we visited Camp Butler National Cemetery outside of Springfield. This is where Grampa Mart and Uncle Robert trained. It also became a prisoner of war camp for some 2,000 Confederate soldiers captured in the battle of Fort Donelson. 
Insects, smallpox and other diseases made conditions so miserable that 700 Confederate soldiers died there in 1862. Since records weren’t kept, many of these men rest under headstones marked Unknown.
A visit to any national cemetery with acres of headstones in neat rows is sobering. Every politician who considers sending our troops to war should be required to stand or walk through in a national cemetery for an hour before making that decision. As a mother who watched her son go off to war in Iraq and then Afghanistan, I stood before those unmarked graves and grieved for those men who were someone’s husband, someone’s son, someone’s brother who never returned home. And their loved ones may never have known where they were laid to rest.
Truly, history has many lessons to teach us if only we’ll take the time to listen and observe.
[…] My husband’s great-grandfather and uncle served in the Union Army during the Civil War. The uncle wrote 250 letters home to his wife detailing where he was and what he was doing. Last summer, my husband and I joined his cousin and wife on a trip to several of the battlefields where they fought. This is the third part of this series. You can read Part 1 and Part 2. […]