History professor to kickoff Civil War events

About 150 years after the first events that lead to the Civil War, the commonwealth of Virginia and the city of Danville are ready with sesquicentennial commemoration events that will last until 2015, 150 years after the end of the war.

“The Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission asked each county and city to have a local commemoration,” Lynne Bjarnesen, co-chair of Danville’s sesquicentennial committee, said Wednesday. “”We were one of the first in the state to get going.”

The kickoff event for the commemoration will be a lecture Saturday by James I. “Bud” Robertson Jr., a Virginia Tech history professor and premiere Civil War historian.

Robertson’s lecture, “Why Civil War Came,” will take place at 3 p.m. at Pritchett Auditorium on Averett University’s main campus. It is free and open to the public.

Robertson, a prolific author, will sign books after the lecture.

Bjarnesen said Virginia’s activities officially started with the commemoration of John Brown’s raid at Harper’s Ferry in 1859 and will end in 2015 at Appomattox Courthouse where Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered.

The Danville committee already has several activities planned as part of the project.

“The first of June we are planning a tea in honor of Verina Davis, Jefferson Davis’ wife, which is co-sponsored by the United Daughters of the Confederacy,” Bjarnesen said. “It will include a fashion show of women’s clothing during the Civil War.”

The Danville Museum of Fine Arts and History, of which Bjarnesen is the executive director, also plans to make changes to its “Between the Lines” permanent exhibit and is looking at ways to restore the interior of the museum “down the road,” she said.

The state and city’s events are going to be “inclusive,” Bjarnesen said.

“The thrust of the state is not so much about generals and battles, but about how the Civil War affected everyone, from those who were left behind to slavery and the African-Americans,” she said. “We are taking the tact of the home front since Danville was the supply depot and all supplies to Lee’s Army went through Danville. The arsenal, hospital and prison were also here.

“We are also looking at the role of women and children and how they survived.”

In 2015, the focus of Danville’s events will be the city’s role as the last capital of the Confederacy.

“We have seven or eight committees, including one for exhibits, programs, education and fundraisers,” Bjarnesen said. “We’re active, and we want it to be a community project and invite anyone who wants to be involved to help.”

The lecture series will be hosted by the Danville Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Planning Committee and co-sponsored by the Danville Museum of Fine Arts and History.

The Danville planning committee formed in 2008 and plans to host three to four lectures a year throughout the sesquicentennial, as well as special community events for the community and historic interpretations and reenactments.