Chancellorsville Battlefield Exhibit Focuses on Soldiers, Their Families

By Deborah Fitts

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. — Photographs of Civil War soldiers and their families are featured in a new permanent exhibit at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park called “Those Who Fought, Those Who Fell, Those Left Behind.”

The exhibit will eventually fill the inside wall of the horse-shoe-shaped exhibit area at the park’s Chancellorsville unit, which until now has been blank.

“The purpose is to bring home the cost of the war, and also to personalize the war a little bit,” explained Don Pfanz, the park’s staff historian.

Park officials are soliciting images from the public to go on the wall. They are looking for soldiers who fought in the Fredericksburg-area battles, and they are seeking quality photos taken of them during the war or shortly afterward. If possible, they would also like photos of family members, plus brief information on the soldier, such as where he was from, what he did before and after the war, and when he died.

Pfanz said the addition of family members was intended to drive home the fact that “War not only affected the soldier on the field, but his family.”

About 100 images have been mounted so far, mostly from the park’s own collection. There is room for about 200.
In order to make the exhibit “self-supporting,” the park is asking contributors to cover the park’s cost of $50 to make a digital copy of their photograph and mount it on a durable panel. Each panel measures about 7-by-10 inches.

Pfanz said that of the 100 soldier images already mounted, the majority were killed or wounded in the war, and about half died during the war. Each panel notes who survived the war by the addition of a green band around the image. Those who died have a black band.

“The armies of this war had hundreds of thousands of men,” said Pfanz. “You forget they were made up of individuals whose lives touched others’. Now people can see who they were.”

Pfanz said the idea for the exhibit came from the park’s chief historian, John Hennessy. Anyone interested in contributing to the wall may contact Pfanz at (540) 371-0802.