Parent/Teacher's Guide to Stonewall Jackson Museum Haversack Tours

Stonewall Jackson Museum contains exhibits on nine battles that Hupp's Hill participated in during the 1862 and 1864 Valley Campaigns, as well as sidebars illustrating the life of Jackson and his department heads, as well as the life of the ordinary soldier in the infantry, artillery, and cavalry. Other exhibits illustrate the challenges civilians faced as they devised ingenious substitutes for many shortages on the home front. Special exhibits also treat the stories of black and Indian soldiers.

In total, Stonewall Jackson museum offers a vast array of information - so vast that it may overwhelm our younger visitors. To help children navigate our museum, we devised our Haversack Tour. Points along the Haversack Tour are marked by blue/white striped ticking bags (haversacks) and a boy soldier logo; they are scattered throughout the museum to denote special kids' exhibits/ activities and to make the "adult" exhibits more manageable. Inside most haversacks are information sheets and museum reproductions kids can handle; however, the haversacks at the Medical and Voices of Children at War exhibits function solely as signposts for those exhibits. Haversacks are located at:

Paired with several haversacks are small blue-edged signs that pose thought-provoking questions. Most have no right or wrong answer, but are intended to get the kids thinking, not just moving through the museum with eyes glazed over from the sheer volume of info presented therein! They are also great jumping-off-places for discussion with their parents and teachers. We suggest that such discussions include:

Was army life what soldiers expected it to be when they enlisted?
(This question focuses on two haversacks: Should I Enlist? which paints a rosy picture of army life, and Boy Soldiers, which gives a more realistic look at it. Many soldiers enlisted for some romantic ideal, but found the reality of wounding, marching, camp sickness, and death quite different from what they had originally conceptualized.)

Could you live on a soldier's pay?
(Balancing low pay with dependents' needs back home in a time of great inflation paints a picture of privation.)

Could you have fun with these toys?
(Hopefully the kids will see that in an age far removed from passive TV watching and sophisticated digital gaming, Victorian kids had a variety of simple toys that allowed them to actively use their imaginations for hours of play, and without the modern stresses of over-scheduling multiple after-school activities.)

Why was writing letters important?
(Without telephones, letters provided the only connection children had with their soldier-fathers during important years in their lives.)

Would you have liked army food?
(The haversack contains hardtack and coffee beans for "lunch on the march"; the nearby infantry camp exhibit shows articles of food that could be purchased from sutlers (the traveling salesmen of the day); the logistics panel on the big mural points out that herds of cows following the armies provided beef; but even with these sources, it should be pretty clear that army food was monotonous, so it shouldn't be surprising that soldiers also provisioned themselves from civilians' foodstuffs, either with or without the owner's permission.)

Could you "make do" without so many ordinary things?
(The exhibits and the haversack contain a description and price list of many of the ordinary things of life in short supply during the war years. Hopefully the kids will appreciate the legendary courage of southern civilians in "making do" without and creating ingenious substitutes for 90% of the things used in their normal life.

Can you see why 1863 is considered the turning point of the war?
(In early July, 1863, the high tide of Confederate victories came to a halt with the disasters at Gettysburg (July 1-3) and Vicksburg (July4); from that point on, the end seems inevitable but nevertheless desperately grinds on with great destruction in this, the first modern war, war of attrition.)

Can you see yourself as one of these young soldiers?
(Hopefully, the quotes by 19th century 10 to 20-year-olds will impress kids viewing the exhibits that children their ages or not much older were growing up in a way that was very different from the way their own lives are unfolding in our century... but not so differently from kids in today's war zones around the world?)

Who had it worse - soldiers or civilians?
(The misery seems divided between both categories, but evenly? You decide.)

Can you see why it took so long to get over the war?
(Some would argue that, upon viewing pockets of poverty in the South and the militant attitudes of some people even today, the war is still not completely over; but the case is made that Reconstruction was indeed a long, costly process.)

Throughout the museum, hands-on reproductions allow our visitors to "experience history" by examining, not just viewing, articles in the museum collection. Please touch them!

After doing the Haversack tour, the logical place to end the museum tour is in the hands-on room, which contains costumes to try on, a tent, wooden horses, camp furniture, and discovery boxes.

Why a museum at Hupp's Hill? The best way to understand the answer to that question is to see how the Hill was actually used during the Civil War by following our battlefield walking tour. Guidebooks are available for purchase, or a shorter leaflet can be obtained for just 25 cents.

Studies show that kids reinforce the lessons they learned in a museum by bringing home something that reminds them of their visit. Our Museum store carefully stocks items correlated to our mission statement at a variety of price points, beginning at just 25 cents. We recommend the museum staff-developed Brigade Bag, which contains a Stonewall Jackson post card, a Civil War pencil, and an activity sheet for just $1.00. Other items that can prolong their hands-on experience include reproduction hats, guns, and games.