What makes the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania a Smithsonian quality experience ?

Do you ever wonder why the events surrounding America’s Civil War from 1861-1865 tend to repeat themselves now? Or perhaps you might doubt that studying this tragic period even matters to us in a modern world that seems so different from those slavery driven times of over one hundred fifty years ago. In either case, I believe a visit to the National Civil War Museum in the town of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania would offer you a reasonable choice to decide for yourself whether the wins and losses from those times matter in your life now from either a Northern (Union side) and Southern (Confederate side) perspective.

So let’s say you desire to take Abraham Lincoln’s Union position which meant opposition to Black American slavery and the supremacy of national government action to re-unite the country then.You might then pay extra attention to video monitors at the museum that realistically re-create how brilliantly he delivered his speeches with simple common sense logic. Or you might stare at a 3-D diorama depicting  the inhumanity of a poor slave woman’s being sold with her son to a heartless new master. In either case you’re obtaining some new awareness of how similarly some “red” sections of America manifest racial/immigrant bias and federal government distrust in today’s times. 

Or  alternatively, you’ve decided to take a tour of this museum expressing full sympathy with the so called secession states of the Confederacy. You know full well then how strongly this “ Land of Dixie” desired to preserve the right to subjugate African Americans to inferior status through slavery and uphold as well the right of each state to control its own governmental destiny. So you’d likely show captive attention to a short movie presentation starring a southern farmer acting out crazed eagerness to get into the war fight with his trustworthy horse to defend his slave driven land. Or you might move along other lifelike scene corridors feeling the indignity  of southern property destruction as Confederate soldiers  desperately hope to “turn the tide”. Such pro violent imagery could now enlighten you more clearly to how Trumpism’s spread and other extremist elements of America’s current Republican Party seem to be operating in our political arena today.

When you’ve experienced enough distaste at this museum, learning about  the Civil War’s shocking bloodshed that laid waste to over 620,000 soldiers lives over a four year period, step outside the entrance for a breath of fresh air. Simply gaze silently in a westerly distance at this pleasurable scenes of majestic mountains and fertile forestland unfolding in the distance. Then glance at the orderly human arrangements of Harrisburg neighborhoods in the foreground. How might this mind restoring landscape impact your thoughts about the mass destruction you’ve witnessed today about the Civil War? Now move on to the photos below which showcase some highlights of our visit to the museum.