Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET What Is Hiding in Your Closet? by MARGARET DICKSON What is hiding in your closet ��� not to mention your attic, your basement Cape Fear Historical Complex Foundation President Tad Prewitt, ���We are and your garage? How about your desk drawers? excited about this program as we believe the documents and photographs The Dickson house has no attic. The basement has been turned into people have could potentially unlock some exciting stories that might a bedroom; the garage is full of sports become part of the story we will tell with equipment ��� fishing gear, waders and a the new, proposed history center.��� jumbo canoe along with my assortment Interest in the Civil War and its of gardening supplies, implements and aftermath is high as our nation birdseed. Closets are full of clothes, most commemorates the 150th anniversary of which are seldom worn and which of this wrenching conflict. It is also someone, usually moi, threatens to clean high in our own community, which out and give away. The desks are stuffed endured a visit from Union General with important papers ��� insurance William Tecumseh Sherman, his more information, passports, tax returns and than 60,000 troops and 25,000 camp the like. followers for several long days in March Some families, though, actually have of 1865. It is stunning to contemplate interesting items in their storage. what that invasion of humanity must A childhood friend recently told me have been like for the maybe 6,000 about Civil War-era family letters detailing Fayetteville residents, 2,000 of whom daily life during those agonizing years as worked at the doomed arsenal. Sherman Interest in the Civil War and its aftermath is high as our nation commemorates came to our city solely to destroy that well as accounts of the bodies of soldiers the 150th anniversary of this wrenching conflict. lying when they fell on her family���s arsenal, which he did with efficiency Alabama land. The letters are written on and dispatch. Visitors today can walk wallpaper, apparently the only medium along the stones of its foundations, but available, and stowed in envelopes folded from the same. that is about it. Sherman executed his job well in the waning days of the My friend and many others like her are just the folks the Museum of the Civil War. Cape Fear is hoping to meet. The scanning project is a pilot for a larger program, which museum The Civil War unfolded and played out on southern soil, including our leaders hope to rollout region-wide later in 2013 and statewide in 2014 to own here in the Fayetteville community. North Carolina suffered more gather as much historical material in private hands as possible. casualties than any other state. These historical realities mean that many A word about what the scanning project is not. southern families have kept Civil War-era documents and photographs, It is not an opportunity for Civil War documents and photos to be handing them down reverently through subsequent generations. appraised or sold. Your family treasures will simply be copied and put The Museum of the Cape Fear, which is part of the North Carolina into our state���s archives and returned to you. They must be original Museum of History, wants to know about these photos and documents ��� and the property of those bringing them in to be scanned. Oversized or letters, diaries, entire books even. More than that, it wants copies of them fragile documents or items such as multi-page documents may have to be to preserve for posterity in our state���s archives, and it is making it easy for transported to Raleigh for scanning. those who have these materials to share them with the rest of us. Many people in our community and beyond have stories of Civil War-era On Saturday, March 9, professionals from the North Carolina heroism, suffering, tragedy and healing that resonate through their family Department of Cultural Resources will be on hand at the museum to scan histories, and they are also part of North Carolina���s history. such family documents and pictures digitally or to photograph them. This We can share these with each other and the rest of the state on March is an opportunity to make sure that individual family histories as revealed 9 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Museum of the Cape Fear on Bradford in writing and in picture ��� records of people and events which shaped our Avenue, just off Hay Street. state���s larger history ��� are both known and preserved. The documentation I hope to see you there, even though the Department of effort is also part of the planning for a proposed statewide North Carolina Cultural Resources has expressed no MARGARET DICKSON, ConCivil War Center, which would be built near the current Museum of the interest in a photo of the Dickson���s tributing Writer, COMMENTS? Cape Fear adjacent to the grounds of the historic Fayetteville Arsenal. Says large red canoe. Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. writ-er [rahy-ter] ��� noun 1. a person engaged in writing books, articles, stories, etc., esp. as an occupation or profession; an author or journalist. If you see yourself in that light, Up & Coming Weekly would love you to join our creative, talented, community-oriented line-up of contributing writers. If you are interested in joining our writing team, e-mail sample articles or questions to: editor@upandcomingweekly.com For more informtion, call 910-484-6200. WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM FEBRUARY 20-26, 2013 UCW 5