June 27 meeting

“Artifacts and Individuals of the Battle of the Wilderness”

is the topic for this month’s Civil War Study Group’s program at 10:30 a.m., Friday, June 27. It will be presented by Beth Parnicza, National Park Service historian at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, who will bring along Wilderness battlefield relics to display and stories to tell about them.

“Our daily lives -- our lived experience -- is often shown in the items we own, the things we carry with us, or the pieces we leave behind,” Beth said.

“Artifacts of the past, whether treasured and carefully passed down through generations or used, discarded, and instantly forgotten, can therefore tell us a national story through a very personal lens.”

She noted that participants in the Battle of the Wilderness, May 5-7, 1864 left a significant trail of possessions in the wake of the fight.

“From melted lead that bore witness to the unspeakable horror of the Wilderness’s infamous fires to the everyday items of a woman who refused to yield even her yard to the Yankees, each artifact can tell a story of the battle, those who witnessed it, and a nation that felt the shockwaves of the first clash of Lee and Grant in the Virginia woods,” Beth said.

“This talk will explore several such items and the stories of those who used them.”

The Civil War Study Group also displays more than 100 examples of Wilderness battlefield relics found by LOW residents in its artifacts cabinet in the LOW Clubhouse.

Beth is a 2011 graduate of West Virginia University. She joined the NPS and moved here to the “other Virginia” to pursue her passion for Civil War history. Her ongoing research interests focus largely on the human aspects of war, such as the looting of Fredericksburg, command relationships in the Overland Campaign, the experience of battle, and the early historians of the F&SNMP.

Beth is the supervisor of the Chancellorsville Battlefield Visitor Center, which just opened its completely revised and greatly expanded exhibition area.

The Civil War Study Group at Lake of the Woods is dedicated to historical research, preservation, and education concerning the American Civil War, especially during the Battle of the Wilderness in and around what is today’s Lake of the Woods area of Orange County. Its monthly programs are held at the Woods Center, 104 Fairway Drive, at 10:30 a.m. on the fourth Friday. They are free and open to all with an interest in the Civil War.