Premier’s Westfield’s Modern History Scholarship The American Civil War/ The Civil Rights Movement in the United States/ America’s involvement in World War II and in World Affairs

Jimmy Carter Museum and Library

The library consists of an archives and a museum. Not a library in the usual sense, is a research facility and a museum. The archives is a repository of approximately 27 million pages of Jimmy Carter’s White House material and papers of administration associates, including documents, memoranda, correspondence, etc. There are also many photographs, and hours of film, audio and video tape.

One of the most interesting exhibits was the replica of the Oval office and the tape of Jimmy Carter’s perspectives on his time as the 39th President of the United States. The library and museum is built on an historical plantation site from the time of the Civil War.

Photos were taken in the grounds of the Jimmy Carter Museum and Library, which was also a site in the American Civil War.

The Cyclorama

Before the battle of Peach Tree Creek, north of the city of Atlanta, General Sherman ordered his men to advance towards Atlanta. Formed in a semi-circle around the north and east of the city, they began to pressure young John Hood, the new commander of the Army of Tennessee. Moving towards Atlanta from the east, General Francis Blair spotted a high ridge known as Bald Hill and ordered Mortimer Leggett to take the hill. A charge on 20 July 1864 failed to move the Southern troops. The following day, the Union soldiers gained control of the ridge and, from that position, the forces could fire into the town center. Today, the scene of the battle has been completely destroyed, but the museum is a wealth of information on the Civil War.

The main feature is the painting The Battle of Atlanta, which was commissioned by General ‘Blackjack’ Logan, who was vying to become vice president of the United States. The painting vividly depicts a charge that he led about at 4:30 p.m. after being appointed temporary commander of the Army of the Tennessee following the death of General James McPherson, as well as other events occurring at that time including the intense battle in the vicinity of the Troup-Hurt House. Although the painting accurately depicts the fighting, it definitely takes a Union perspective. General Sherman can be seen near the Augustus Hurt house, while General Hood is not in the painting.

Information gained here was that the Battle of Atlanta was part of the tactics of generals Ulysses S Grant and William T Sherman aimed at completing the Anaconda Plan, a vague scheme for encircling and dividing the South (that was originally designed by General Winfield Scott). It was important to remove Atlanta, which had been referred to as ‘the workshop and warehouse of the South’ because of its industrial facilities and railway complex. The defeat of the Confederates and the subsequent burning of Atlanta was romanticised in Margaret Mitchell’s novel Gone with the Wind. Her house and attached museum was another place of interest in Atlanta.

Details of the battle include:

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  Location: Fulton County Campaign: Atlanta Campaign (1864)
  Date: July 22, 1864;
  
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  Principal commanders: Major General William T Sherman [Union];
  General John Bell Hood [Confederate];
  
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  Forces engaged: Military Division of the Mississippi [Union]; Army of Tennessee [Confederate];
  
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  Estimated Casualties: 12,140 total (Union, 3641; Confederate, 8499); and
  
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  Results: Union victory.
  

Although Hood had outmaneuvered Sherman for the time being, McPherson was concerned about his left flank and sent his reserves—Grenville Dodge’s XVI Army Corps—to that location. Two of Hood’s divisions ran into this reserve force and were repulsed. The Rebel attack stalled on the Union rear but began to roll up the left flank. Around the same time, a Confederate soldier shot and killed McPherson when he rode out to observe the fighting. Determined attacks continued, but the Union forces held. About 4 p.m., Cheatham’s corps broke through the Union front at the Hurt House, but Sherman massed 20 artillery pieces on a knoll near his headquarters to shell these Confederates and halt their drive. Major General John A Logan’ s XV Army Corps then led a counterattack that restored the Union line. The Union troops held, and Hood suffered high casualties.

The Cyclorama houses the painting depicting the battle. Currently only 42 feet high and 358 feet long, it is wrapped in circle, so the length is frequently given as circumference (original dimensions 60 feet x 360 feet).

The visit also included a film narrated by James Earl Jones that covers the history of the Atlanta Campaign leading up to the battle, and then a guide pointed out highlights of the painting. Those highlights included:

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  the re-creation of the heavy fighting in the vicinity of the Troup-Hurt house;
  
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  Old Abe, the bald eagle mascot of a Union regiment;
  
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  an ambulance carrying Manning Force to a field hospital after being wounded in the face; and
  
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  a plaster of Paris mannequin bearing an uncanny likeness to Clark Gable.
  

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  the Anaconda Plan;
  
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  generals Ulysses S Grant and William T Sherman;
  
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  Lincoln’s involvement in the war plans; and
  
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  the role of the railway in the time of the war.
  

The Great Locomotive Chase

Another interesting aspect of the war in this area is the story of the Great Locomotive Chase. Housed in the same building is the Civil War museum that includes in its exhibition The Texas, a Civil War train that was engaged in a episode now commonly known as the Great Locomotive Chase, which took place when Union raiders stole a locomotive, called The General and were pursued by its engine crew and others in The Texas.

While war raged in the fields of Virginia and Tennessee, the factories and farms in Georgia produced supplies that fed and clothed the Confederate Army. In the spring of 1862, the quiet of north Georgia was shattered by a group of 22 Union spies, known as Andrew’s raiders because of their leader, who were attempting to disrupt supplies to the Confederate Army.

The crew of The General had a different idea. Anthony Murphy, a machine foreman joined conductor William Fuller, who took the theft as a personal affront, and pursued the raiders, firstly using a handcar and later on foot. The raiders were destroying lines as they went. But undaunted, Fuller and Murphy took a southbound engine, The Texas, south of the Adairsville station. The chase was on, with The Texas in pursuit of The General at top speed, but in reverse! The pursuit got so close that the Union men were unable to complete their mission of burning the Oostanaula and Chickamauga bridges. The General was finally abandoned and the raiders fled to the woods and were later captured and imprisoned.

Both these topics would be used as smaller research projects in the unit on the American Civil War. These would be supplemented with the photos and website addresses for the students. The resources bought on site, namely the Atlanta Cyclorama Book on the Battle of Atlanta and the book Civil War Photographs would be an important part of this study.

The rest of the exhibits in this museum deal with the weapons used in the war, such as the revolver and muzzle-loading musket rifle and shells. There was also a display of original cannons and explanations of their use, and further information on battles and strategies.

Smithsonian Institute Museum of American History

The next major research took place in Washington, DC. Here resources were gathered at the Smithsonian Institute Museum of American History, which had several exhibitions on both the Civil War and Civil Rights.

Field to Factory: Afro-American Migration 1915–1940

This exhibition told the story of the Great Migration, a vast movement of African–Americans from the South to the North between 1915 and 1940. The exhibition interprets the complexities and effects of this migration by focusing on the people themselves. It explores the lives of African–Americans in the South, the hopes and expectations that prompted the decision to move north, the adjustments they had to make to their new surroundings, and the ways the populations of northern cities had to adjust to them. This exhibition featured:

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  a room from the house of a tenant farmer in Maryland;
  
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  a sock doll in a cradle;
  
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  a cotton gin;
  
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  a school bell; and
  
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  artifacts from the beauty salon of Marjorie Stewart Joyner, a successful African–American entrepreneur.
  

To commemorate the opening of the World War II Memorial on the National Mall, this exhibition presents a selection of 100 wartime photographs from the vast collections of the Smithsonian. The exhibition includes the work of amateur and professional photographers, images of the battlefield and the home front, and the arresting images captured by combat photographers such as Robert Capa.

Brown versus the Board of Education

This exhibition marked the 50th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision that helped end segregation in public schools and was a turning point in the history of race relations in the United States. Using personal stories, artifacts, images, and video presentations, the exhibition portrayed the struggle for social justice before and after the Court’s ruling in the Brown case. It also examined the decision’s impact on contemporary society and challenged visitors to explore what social justice means today. The exhibition featured:

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  a metal tag used to identify enslaved people in Charleston, South Carolina;
  
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  a robe and hood from the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s;
  
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  a typewriter and Dictaphone belonging to Charles Hamilton Houston, a crusading lawyer in the struggle to end segregated education;
  
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  a portion of the Woolworth lunch counter from Greensboro, NC, site of a 1960 sit-in protest; and
  
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  the robe of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who had argued the Brown v. Board of Education case before the court as an attorney for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
  

The Smithsonian museums all offer online exhibitions which can be accessed by students in Australia.The Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case represented a turning point in the history of race relations in the United States and is a strong part of the Civil Rights Unit.

The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden

The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden, portrayed the role of the presidency in American culture. Through more than 900 objects from the Smithsonian’s collections, the exhibition told the story of the men who occupied and defined the most powerful position in the world and the dynamic relationship between the president and the American people. The exhibition explored the creation of the office, its evolving duties and obligations, the limits of presidential power, the nation’s grief when a president is assassinated, and the reflections of former presidents on life after the White House. There was additional information on John F Kennedy’s time in the White House to be used with the Extension History Option on JFK.

The Price of Freedom: Americans at War

This important exhibition looked at the history of America’s military roles from the French and Indian Wars to today’s conflict in Iraq. The exhibition extended far beyond a survey of battles and presented the link between military conflict and American political leadership, social values, technological innovation, and personal sacrifice. The heart of the story was the impact of war on citizen soldiers, their families, and communities. It was a very moving and empathetic exhibition which featured:

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  George Washington’s sword and scabbard;
  
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  George Armstrong Custer’s buckskin coat;
  
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  the chairs Civil War generals Robert E Lee and Ulysses S Grant used during the surrender ceremony at Appomattox Court House, Virginia;
  
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  a Willys Jeep used during World War II;
  
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  a restored UH-1H Huey Helicopter deployed in Vietnam in 1966;
  
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  General Colin Powell’s uniform from Operation Desert Storm; and
  
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  pieces of the Berlin Wall.
  

I was able to take many photos of this exhibition, which will be used as a PowerPoint presentation for Years 9 and 10 History classes. The students will then be encouraged to view the online exhibition for themselves. As an extension, I will add the resources gathered through my visit to Ground Zero in New York to look a the role terrorism has taken in shaping the role of warfare in the 21st century.

Birmingham Civil Rights Institute

Moving further to the southern states, another interesting site visited was the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, in Birmingham, Alabama, which documents the history of Birmingham’s role in the Civil Rights Movement. It documents the fact that Birmingham held an important role in racial conflicts during the 1950s and 1960s, but the institute itself is an indication of the lengths to which this community has gone to create an awareness of human rights issues.

It was an important part of studies on the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. This is a preliminary course taught in the Stage 6 Syllabus and was a personal favorite of mine. I had made contact with the institute and was able to meet the curriculum coordinator and obtain a wonderful package of resources which are suitable for use K–12. There is information which will be invaluable as teaching resources.

The material can also be linked to the Stage 5 study of Aboriginal people in Australia, and the information on the Freedom Rides, which influenced Charles Perkins’ similar Rides, is particularly topical with the anniversary rides in progress through rural Australia at the moment.

The institute’s mission statement is: ‘Inspired by our civil rights past, our mission is to encourage communication and reconciliation of human rights issues worldwide, and to serve as a depository for civil rights archives and documents.’ The institute was enlightening, as was a tour of the local area that included the church that was bombed during this period of America’s history.

The resources collected at this site were supplemented by the information gained in Atlanta, Georgia, which is the birthplace of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.

Sweet Auburn area of Atlanta

A number of sites were of interest in the Sweet Auburn area of Atlanta. These included King’s birth home, the church in which he preached and the Martin Luther King Centre for Non-violent Social Change, which was established by his wife, Mrs. Coretta Scott King, to preserve her husband’s legacy. Also at this National Historic site there is King’s final resting place and exhibitions on him, Coretta Scott King, and Mahatma Gandhi.

There is also a Visitor Center which features further information about Dr King and the Civil Rights Movement. There are exhibits on Freedom Road and the students who were killed in Mississippi and feature in the film, Mississippi Burning, which is often used as an introduction to this unit, and Dr. King’s tomb.

Library of Congress

While in Washington, a site visited was the Library of Congress, which holds the nation’s archives and where original documents may be viewed. It was found that some of the collections are available to our students online and these include topics such as:

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  Washington and the Civil War;
  
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  Civil War maps, photographs, images;
  
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  Pearl Harbour and public reactions;
  
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  Civil War in Pennsylvania; and
  
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  African Americans: From Slavery to Freedom.
  

Resources were also gathered from this site, including replicas of the original documents (such as The Bill of Rights) for use in building future units on American history of that period, and a short visit was made to the Supreme Court Building.

Other visits

More valuable information was collected from visiting other areas in the United States. The visits to Alabama and New Orleans allowed an experience of the South and photographic resources were also gathered here for use in cross-curriculum work with novels such as Huckleberry Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird.

In New Orleans, there was also the D-Day Museum, which features exhibitions on the Victory in Europe and Victory in the Pacific. Information gained there will be added to resources gathered in Hawaii earlier in the year on the attack on Pearl Harbour.

Conclusion

The trip was a great success, as the experiences gained were very enlightening and the resources gathered will be of great assistance in formulating new units for the new syllabus implementation in 2006.

Much was also gained for use in current units, such as the ones targeted in the study, which were:

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  Civil Rights Movement in the USA in the 1950s and the 1960s;
  
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  The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade; and
  
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  Yankees and Confederates in the American States in the Mid-19th Century.
  

Preliminary material was gathered for the preparation of a unit on the Origins and Early Development of American Democracy.

Additional resources were gathered on the presidency of JFK, the conflict in the Middle East, America’s role in World War II, the Vietnam War, the War of Independence and many other aspects of American history.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Selection Committee, the Premier’s Department, the Corporate sponsors and the Department of Education for this wonderful and beneficial scholarship. The only regret I had was in the timing of the trip. If it could have been undertaken early this year, I would have been able to view a re-enactment of a Civil War battle and there were some exhibitions that were closed during the autumn period in the United States. I understood that the trip had to be completed before 31 December 2004.

Sites visited and used in study and resource gathering

The Atlanta History Centre

The Jimmy Carter museum and Library, Atlanta, Georgia

The Cyclorama and Museum, Atlanta, Georgia

The Martin Luther King Centre and Sweet Auburn area, Atlanta, Georgia

The Smithsonian Institutes, Washington, DC

The Museum of American History

The Aeronautical and Space Museum

The Museum of Natural History

The Library of Congress, Washington, DC

The site of the World Trade Centre, New York

The D-Day Museum, New Orleans, Lousiana

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