From the press release:
RICHMOND, Va.– On Sunday, June 29, 2014, as part of the nationwide Civil War sesquicentennial commemoration, the National Park Service will present Voices from the Storm: The 1864 Overland Campaign. This special outdoor multimedia program will begin at 8:30 p.m. at the Tredegar Iron Works (500 Tredegar Street in Richmond) and will feature images, voices, and music of the people who lived 150 years ago.
I found him in front of the altar… He had been shot through the chest, was breathing loud and in gasps, worn out for want of support… His words led several men near to draw their sleeves across their eyes; but they all knew he was dying… He reached toward the floor, and the man next handed up a daguerreotype case… I took it and opened it; found the picture of a young, handsome woman and held it and a candle so that he could see it. His tears fell on it, as he looked… “Is that your wife?” and he replied, “No! But she would have been.”
(Jane Swisshelm, hospital nurse)
This story is one of hundreds from churches turned to hospitals, from farm fields that became battlefields, and homes that would never again be seen by their sons, fathers, and brothers. These stories illustrate how the massive 1864 Overland Campaign reverberated throughout the nation that summer 150 years ago, and for years afterward.
The National Park Service will share some of these stories in Voices from the Storm: The 1864 Overland Campaign, presented by park rangers and volunteers from Richmond National Battlefield Park, Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park, and Petersburg National Battlefield. The free program is a partnership event cosponsored by the three parks and the American Civil War Museum. A reception will precede the program at 8:00 p.m.
The Overland Campaign
In five weeks of fighting between May and June 1864, tens of thousands of American soldiers were casualties of what became known as the Overland Campaign, a series of battles fought across a broad swath of central Virginia, from Fredericksburg to Richmond to Petersburg. That summer, the families and loved ones of almost 100,000 American servicemen received news that their husbands, sons, fathers, and friends were casualties of the fighting in Virginia—killed, wounded, or missing—captured or maybe one of the countless unidentified dead hastily buried on the battlefield. As the siege of Petersburg and Richmond began in June 1864, the outcome of the war was far from certain—for the future of the Union, the Confederacy, and four million enslaved African Americans. Since early May, thousands of visitors have followed in the footsteps of Union and Confederate armies as the three parks and partner sites throughout central Virginia have been commemorating the 1864 Overland Campaign.
