April 2011

The American Civil War had cost more than 620,000 lives and had nearly torn the nation apart, but by May 1865, it was finally over. To celebrate, thousands of people gathered in Washington, D.C., to express their gratitude to the military forces that had made the Union victory possible. More than 200,000 Union troops paraded through the city in this Grand Review—but only white troops participated. Even though more than 185,000 African American soldiers had served the Union cause and suffered disproportionately high casualty rates in battle, black soldiers were not invited to the Washington celebration.

The scene was wild and grand. Joy and gladness exhausted all forms of expression, from shouts of praise to joys and tears.” That was how Frederick Douglass described the moment when the words of the Emancipation Proclamation first came over the nation’s telegraph wires on January 1, 1863.

But after studying the document more carefully, Douglass complained: “It was not a proclamation of ‘liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof,’ such as we had hoped it would 

Tryon Palace is a modern recreation of the original palace, which served as the royal governors' palace of the Province of North Carolina. William Tryon commissioned the palace as he ascended to the royal governorship in 1765. He only lived in the palace for one year, leaving North Carolina in 1771 to become royal governor of New York.

In 1775, Josiah Martin, the last royal governor of North Carolina, fled the palace, and American patriots seized the building and used it as the first state capitol building. Although the first state governors of North Carolina lived in the palace, it succumbed to fire in 1798, and the remains were razed some years later.

Beginning in 1945, the newly established Tryon Palace Commission decided to rebuild the palace, using the original plans. In 1959, the reconstructed palace opened to the public. More recently, the Tryon Palace complex opened the North Carolina Historical Center, a 60,000 square-foot interactive facility that allows children and young adults to perform typical duties for Antebellum North Carolinians.

Located in Columbus, Georgia, the National Civil War Naval Museum at Port Columbus is the only museum in the country that features both the Union and Confederate navies. Inside the museum lay the remnants of two Confederate warships: the hull of the CSS Muscogee, destroyed in in Chattahoochee River by Union soldiers in April 1865, and the remains of the CSS Chattahoochee, scuttled by Confederate soldiers to avoid its capture in December 1864.

Newer exhibits simulate Civil War naval battles and depict the harsh conditions for Union and Confederate sailors. In addition, "Ramparts to Topmast: Flags of Triumph and Despair" covers the naval history of the Civil War through a collection of naval flags from both sides. These flags complement the sizeable collection of uniforms, equipment, and weapons in the 40,000 square-foot museum.

Opened in 2004, the O. Winston Link Museum honors the photography and the life of O. Winston Link, a prominent 20th-century photographer. While producing many photographs for marketing campaigns during his career, Link popularized railroad photography, and is best known for his photographic collection of the Norfolk & Western Railway line as it transitioned from steam-powered to diesel-powered locomotive engines. 

Link grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and graduated from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn with a degree in civil engineering. After graduation, he turned to photography, and his mastery of black-and-white photography led to his success.

Appropriately, the former Norfolk & Western Railway station in downtown Roanoke houses the O. Winston Link Museum.