Autumn and Jeff Batie of Denver, Co., walk through the Vicksburg National Military Park’s Visitor Center lobby Tuesday looking at The Voices of the Civil War. The exhibit about the American Civil War will be on display until the middle of June. (The Vicksburg Post/MELANIE DUNCAN)

[05/03/01] Visitors to the Vicksburg National Military Park will have a chance for the next month and a half to see a new exhibit that may help them understand some of the horrors and hardships of the American Civil War.

Since its founding in 1899, The Vicksburg park has offered interpretations of a part of America’s history the battle that was fought here by Union forces under Gen. U.S. Grant and the Confederate defenders commanded by Gen. John C. Pemberton. The Rebel defenders were forced to surrender to Grant on July 4, 1863, following a 47-day siege. The Vicksburg park preserves a large part of the battlefield.

“The Voices of the Civil War” is a traveling exhibit developed by the Civil War Preservation Trust and the History Channel, said park historian Terry Winschel.

“Through collages, photos, maps and other interpretive devices, (the exhibit) helps bring to people today some of the tragedy of the war from the standpoint of the soldier and the civilians,” Winschel said.

He said he and other park personnel installed the numerous 7-foot-tall panels Tuesday and opened it to the public that afternoon. It will be on display in the lobby of the park’s Visitors Center from now until June 18.

Winschel said he and park Superintendent Bill Nichols first saw the exhibit at a conference at Ford Theater in Washington, D.C., last year. It was the display’s premiere showing after being completed.

He said the conference was to explain the expanded interpretive role assigned to the National Park Service under a mandate from Congress to deal with broader aspects of the Civil War instead of just battlefields and military history.

“Bill was impressed with (the display) and we were told it would be available as a traveling exhibit,” Winschel said.

He said the only cost to the park was the shipping cost of the display’s 1,400 pounds. After it closes here, it will be dismantled and shipped to its next stop.