From Press Release
The Iowa Gold Star Military Museum, 7105 NW 70th Ave., Johnston, will host a ribbon cutting ceremony dedicating its new Civil War exhibit on Thursday, April 9, beginning at 10 a.m.
The exhibit includes custom-built cases displaying a unique variety of weapons, artifacts, images, and documents detailing the experiences of Iowans in the U. S. Civil War (1861-1865). An interactive feature allows visitors to determine their fate as an Army volunteer, based on Civil War casualty statistics from Iowa.
A full-scale diorama and mural depicts Iowa troops at the April 1862 Battle of Shiloh, Tenn., featuring realistic figures dressed in reproduction Civil War period uniforms and equipped with reproduction Civil War accoutrements and weapons, including a reproduction 3-pound Parrott rifle. Eleven Iowa regiments and more than 6,600 Iowa Soldiers fought at Shiloh, with approximately 2,409 Iowans killed, wounded and missing.
April 9 also commemorates the 150th anniversary of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox in 1865. On this date, Lee surrendered the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, at the home of Wilmer and Virginia McLean in the rural town of Appomattox Court House, Va. After approximately 630,000 deaths and more than one million casualties, the American Civil War had effectively ended.
This exhibit was made possible by a grant from the Gabus Family Foundation and other private donations.
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