Future home: New Missouri Civil War Museum being built

The new Missouri Civil War Museum has found some treasures in its hunt for artifacts to tell the story of the state's important role in the bitter conflict. Gary Stevens, spokesman for the museum being developed on the grounds of the Jefferson Barracks Historic Site in south St. Louis County, said the collection has more than 1,000 artifacts, the majority of them donated.

"They've come from almost every state, including Hawaii," Stevens said. "Probably the best thing is a pair of green velvet parlor chairs that were owned by Mary Todd Lincoln. And we have an original 35-star U.S. flag that came into use in 1863."

A group of Civil War enthusiasts that now numbers more than 400 dues-paying members formed a not-for-profit educational institution to develop the museum. The group's chairman and prime mover is Mark Trout, a former Marine, policeman and city planner.

St. Louis County gave the group a lease on the 1905 Jefferson Barracks Post Exchange Building, which had deteriorated badly since it was closed in 1946 and was approaching demolition. The group began work on the redbrick building in 2003 and had hoped to have the museum ready in April for the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War. The opening has been moved back to possibly late this year. The group has spent $1.6 million in restoring the building, and says the total may reach $2 million by the time the project is finished. The majority of the money has come from private sources.

Founded in 1826, Jefferson Barracks is the oldest active military installation west of the Mississippi River. It was one of the largest hospital complexes in the North or South during the war, and later became a cavalry base.

"We long ago decided we were going to restore the building to as close as possible, using the original blueprints, and adapt the museum exhibits and galleries around that," Stevens said. "There used to be so many beautiful old buildings out here and, unfortunately, many of them were lost."

Artifacts are still being donated as the museum serves as a repository for the Civil War heirlooms cherished by the families of veterans.

"We got a burial flag from a family in Virginia, they came down to deliver it," Stevens said. "We have a large collection of medical artifacts, which is appropriate because this building is actually on the site where some of the hospital buildings were during the war.

"We've got surgical kits, amputation kits -- some of it looks scarier than what you'd find on the battlefield."

Gary Stevens of the Missouri Civil War Museum walks among the Civil War graves in the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery near St. Louis. (TOM UHLENBROCK ~ Missouri State Parks)

History in the front yard

Jefferson Barracks today is a national historic site and home to the Missouri National Guard, a county park, a Veterans Affairs Hospital and the National Cemetery, where some 16,000 Civil War veterans are buried.

A walk-through of the Federal-style museum building shows the heavy work largely has been completed, replacing the mechanical systems, restoring the original brick walls and fixing the roof, which had holes large enough to let the sun shine in.

The building once housed a two-lane bowling alley, barber shop, indoor shooting range, kitchen, store and gymnasium with a locker room. Most will be used for galleries and exhibit space. The store will become a gift shop; the shooting range will be a theater.

The gymnasium, which includes an elevated oval running track, will be the main gallery. A raised island in the middle will display a Studebaker wagon and a stuffed horse with a cavalry saddle and other equipment. Vintage flags will hang on the walls around the track.

Visitors entering the building will see the impressive grand staircase, with a stained-glass window at the landing. "We re-created the window, using the pattern in the blueprints," Stevens said. "But we added the Missouri State seal"

A view through a window at the new Missouri Civil War Museum shows the parade grounds at Jefferson Barracks, where some Civil War generals served before the war.

The group also has a lease on a smaller building next door. Built in 1918, plans call for that building to be restored and used as the Missouri Civil War Studies Center, a research library.

"We have been collecting books, military records and documents," Stevens said. "We have in the neighborhood of 5,000 volumes now."

The two buildings face the Jefferson Barracks parade grounds.

"There were some 220 Civil War generals posted at Jefferson Barracks before the war -- Grant, Sherman, Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis," Stevens said. "We talk about history in our front yard."

Which flag to fly?

The Battle of Athens State Historic Site, in the northeast corner of the state, is a museum of a different sort. The artifacts on display are the few original buildings that still stand from the summer of 1861, when Union forces clashed with the pro-Southern State Guard.

Athens at the time was a thriving town of some 50 businesses and 600 people with a mill on the Des Moines River and a railroad depot on the other side in Iowa. But the townspeople were divided on their sentiments, and argued daily over which flag to fly over the county courthouses. Union Col. David Moore had some 500 men, newly armed with a load of muskets commandeered from a freight train. Col. Martin Green arrived with about 2,000 members of the State Guard to try to rescue the town from its Union occupiers.

Jerry Toops, superintendent of the Battle of Athens State Historic Site, shows where a cannonball tore through the Thome-Benning mansion during the fight on Aug. 5, 1861.

When the smoke cleared after a two-hour battle on Aug. 5, more than 50 were dead on both sides. But the town of Athens was the big loser. It failed to get a railroad bridge, and withered when transportation turned from rivers to rails.

Today, the Battle of Athens State Historic Site consists of the few historic buildings in a bucolic setting. Jerry Toops, site superintendent, used the 150th anniversary of the battle as the impetus for sprucing up the homes, including the Thome-Benning mansion, which was pierced by a cannonball in the battle.

Aided by workers from the State Parks Youth Corps, crews replaced four roofs, demolished non-historical additions and put a stone foundation on a house that had been moved to the site.

"We wanted everything to look like it did the day of the battle." said Toops, who completed much of the work in time for an Aug. 5 re-enactment.

"We kind of put the pedal to the floor, and kept it there."