The Civil War Traveler's CompanionTell us about your favorite places to stay or eat on Civil War Battlefields. If you want to write a review of a Civil War B&B, this is the perfect place to post it.
Posted on Wed, Jan. 25, 2006
Oil producer opens massive Civil War museum
MATT CURRY Associated Press
FORT WORTH, Texas - After two decades collecting Civil War treasures, Texas oilman Ray Richey finally reached a turning point.
"Either build a third storage building or a museum," said Richey, 50. "Or I could quit collecting, which was not an option."
Richey went with the museum, an expansive building just a short walk from his office on the western outskirts of Fort Worth. But the Texas Civil War Museum, which opened to the public Wednesday, is more than just his huge stockpile.
Richey partnered with the United Daughters of the Confederacy, whose Texas collection was displayed in Austin from 1904 to 1988. The UDC had been seeking a permanent home for their artifacts since being uprooted by renovation of the State Capitol.
"This is just a proud time for us because we've waited so long for it," said Deena Harrison Dark of the UDC. Richey calls himself a "C-plus" history student who had little interest in the subject until he and his wife Judy came face to face with history during a trip to Washington, where they visited the Smithsonian. He later purchased some muskets at a gun show in Richmond, Va., the start of a collection that has ballooned over 21 years. The Richeys call their museum the culmination of a dream.
Fascination with the all-American conflict, boosted by its centennial in the 1960s and Ken Burns' PBS television documentary in the 1990s, shows no sign of letting up, historian Steven E. Woodworth said.
"If a private person is going to own a lot of Civil War memorabilia or artifacts, I think this is the right thing to do with it: Put it on display, allow the public to look at it and scholars to look at it," said Woodworth, a Texas Christian University history professor and prolific author whose books include "Jefferson Davis and His Generals" and "Davis and Lee at War."
Richey built the spacious museum on property he owned at a cost of about $2 million. His collection alone, an estimated 65 percent of which is on display, is insured for $3 million.
"The firearms are not my favorite. You have to have them because that's what they used to kill each other," he said. "I like the personal items, the flags. That's what the boys fought for."
Among the most heart-rending is the bloodstained New Testament recovered from Confederate Pvt. Julius T. Sawyer of Georgia, who was killed at the Battle of Olustee, Fla., on Feb. 20, 1864.
Another of Richey's favorites is the Confederate battle flag Pvt. Charles P. Matthews sneaked under his shirt at his unit's surrender and brought home to Texas. A photo next to the framed, tattered banner shows an elderly Matthews in 1910, holding the flag in a ramrod-straight pose.
"This is cool, it really is," said Tom Stuart, 53, of Flower Mound, a Civil War re-enactor and museum volunteer who pointed out possible bullet holes in the worn standard.
The museum covers 15,500 square feet and more than 3,000 artifacts that will rotate on exhibit.
Camp gear, muskets and even locks of hair from Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Gen. Robert E. Lee can be seen.
The museum has more than 200 colorful Victorian dresses collected by Judy Richey, 36 of which are on display. The UDC collection contains more than 60 flags and items from the home front, including a piano that Davis bought for a niece.
The Civil War divided families and dramatically reordered the nation, eliminating the long-held institution of slavery at a cost of more than 600,000 American casualties - about 200 times the number killed in the Iraq war.
Like the country in the 1860s, the museum is split: Bright blue uniforms of the Union are encased along the north wall, while the gray or butternut worn by Confederates is aligned along a south wall.
The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday. Admission is $6 for adults and $3 for students 7-12 years of age and free to children 6 and under with an adult. Group rates are available.
I like what he said here, "If a private person is going to own a lot of Civil War memorabilia or artifacts, I think this is the right thing to do with it: Put it on display, allow the public to look at it and scholars to look at it."
Union Ancersor: Pvt Arnuah Norton, 60th Ohio. (G-G-G Grandfather) Died at Salisbury NC, November 3, 1864
Confederate Ancestors: Captain Thomas A. Morrow, 29th Texas Cavalry (G-G-G- Uncle) and 2LT George W. Morrow, 31st Texas Cavalry (G-G-G Grandfather). Both survived the war
CivilWarTalk.com -
A free and friendly Civil War community. 
NEW Texas Civil War Museum OH THE JOY 
Linear Mode
