On show is the only known surviving surgeon’s tent, medical kits and veterinary instruments. It is also a story of major advances that changed medicine forever. Weaving together the moving narrative of medics, soldiers and their families, the displays reveal the harsh realities of life in an army camp, the evacuation of wounded from the battlefield, a field hospital and military hospital ward. Exhibits tell the story of care and healing, courage and devotion amidst death and destruction. National Museum of Civil War Medicineĭiscover a previously unseen side of the conflict at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick. From Kennedy Farm, where John Brown staged his 1859 attack on Harpers Ferry to the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination and the escape of killer John Wilkes Booth, the trails offer an incredible insight into events that changed the nation. The four carefully mapped driving routes link together a collection of famous and lesser-known sights from Baltimore city throughout the Chesapeake Region, Southern Maryland and into Western Maryland. Take to the road and follow the course of the war, the people who fought in it and the citizens who lived through it on a Maryland Civil War Trail. Situated on fields among the Appalachian foothills and now a national park, visitors can embark on self-guided or informative ranger-led tours of the battlefield, visitor centre, national military cemetery and the field hospital museum. The conflict ended the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia’s first invasion into the North and led to Abraham Lincoln issuing the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation to hasten the end of slavery.

The pivotal Battle of Antietam was the bloodiest battle of the Civil War with 23,000 soldiers killed, wounded or missing after 12 hours of savage combat on 18 September 1862. Maryland US Civil War Sites Antietam National Battlefield See the former boarding house frequented by the Lincoln conspirators, the alley down which John Wilkes Booth fled after shooting the president, the home and office of famed Civil War nurse and American Red Cross founder Clara Barton, and a church that was used as a war hospital. The trail focuses on DC’s experiences during the Civil War, as well as the continuing challenge to realise the American dream of equal rights for all citizens. Civil War to Civil Rights Trailįollow the path of history on the self-guided Cultural Tourism DC Neighborhood Heritage Trail ' Civil War to Civil Rights' to discover little-known sites that link the history of the city to the history of the nation. Lee and Stonewall Jackson are among the Civil War leaders represented at the National Portrait Gallery and the lives of soldiers are brought vividly to life at the National Museum of American History. A sheet of 96 Confederate postage stamps was the first item in the national philatelic collection, housed today in the National Postal Museum.

They range from personal effects to examples of uniforms and weapons. The Smithsonian Institution houses an extraordinary array of Civil War artefacts in nearly a dozen of its museums and archives. Schedules vary but visitors may experience audio tours of the theatre, self-guided tours of the museum and Petersen House, talks by National Park Service rangers, and evening and matinee performances. The building, on the site of the assassination, is both a working theatre and historical monument. While attending a performance of a play at Ford’s Theatre, he was killed by actor John Wilkes Booth and became the first American president to be assassinated.

Experience the region's Civil War heritage at these sites in DC, Maryland and Virginia: Washington, DC US Civil War Sites Ford's TheatreĪmerica’s transfer from civil war to peace was made more difficult on 14 April 1865, when Abraham Lincoln was shot and killed just five days after General Lee’s surrender. In fact, more battles were fought in the Capital Region than anywhere else in the US.

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