It was my love of dioramas that got me interested in museum work. I served as curator of exhibits at the Missouri State Museum in Jefferson City, Missouri, where I created this diorama of the May 22, 1863, assault on Stockade Redan at Vicksburg. The Stockade Redan is shown in the left background with the Union assault column charging down the Graveyard Road. In the foreground is the redan later known as Green's Redan, named for Gen. Martin Green, 2nd Missouri Brigade, killed there on June 27. In a brother-against-brother situation, Missourians helped defend Stockade Redan and Green's Redan against Missourians in the attacking column. The Missouri Monument, honoring both sides, stands on the site of Green's Redan. The figures in the foreground are all approximately six inches tall. The terrain is based on photographs that I took there one winter.
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This diorama (also in the State Museum) depicts the skirmish at Island Mound, Bates County, Missouri, Oct. 29, 1862. A scouting party from the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry was attacked by a superior force of mounted Confederates. Charging through the smoke of prairie fires, the Confederates fought hand-to-hand with the Kansans until driven off by reinforcements from their regiment. The skirmish was significant as the first time during the war that African Americans proved themselves in combat. The 1st Kansas Colored was actually raised before the Emancipation Proclamation by Kansas senator James Lane, a man who tended to do things his own way in spite of government disapproval. In this diorama the figures are only 54mm tall.
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