Civil War Museum To Stay In Andersonville, Ga.
Feb/March 2003

ANDERSONVILLE, Ga. - Thanks to a $500,000 grant, the Drummer Boy Civil War Museum will remain in Andersonville and be operated by The Andersonville Guild, the local historical
society.

Guild President Peggy Sheppard credits efforts of the Guild, the City of Andersonville and dozens of supporters for helping win the $500,000 One Georgia Equity Fund Grant to purchase the museum from Gerald Lamby.

The museum represents a lifetime of collecting for Lamby, 73, who wanted to sell it so that he could retire. He began collecting in New York 60 years ago and displayed the collection at several locations in the Northeast before moving to Andersonville.

The collection includes 15 complete Union and Confederate uniforms, guns, swords, flags, documents and photographs. The museum gets its name from two drummer boy uniforms it displays. Memorabilia of Gen. Thomas Eckert, supervisor of military telegraphs for the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsula Campaign, who established the military telegraph system, is also in the collection.

An 8 x 12-foot diorama of the Andersonville Confederate Prison and the 1864 Village of Andersonville are also featured.Debbie Wallsmith, curator of collections for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, calls the collection "unparalleled in the world of small museums." She said the state does not have any collection that approaches the quality of the Andersonville museum's.

The museum is open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 10 to 5 and Sundays from 1 to 5, as well as for scheduled tour buses. The Guild provides complimentary guides to the prison site, Andersonville National Cemetery and sites in the Civil War Village of Andersonville for groups of more than 12 people.

Reservations for tours and visits to the museum may be made through the Guild at P.O. Box 6, Andersonville, GA 31711 or phone and fax at (229) 924-2558.