Get Your NC History Fix!!!

Great new exhibit at the North Carolina Musuem of History....I'm taking my sons there to learn about the history of North Carolina and the wars that have taken place.......War ain't pretty and it's something nobody wants, but sometimes it happens. I thank God above when we come out ahead so we can maintain our freedom to live a life like we want in the greatest country in the world. Take the kids...it's a great summer day trip and best of all it's FREE!!! That's my kind of learning.......

Eleven wars in one exhibit gallery. For the first time, visitors to the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh will see artifacts from the American Revolution to the war in Iraq in one exhibit. On Tuesday, May 8, the museum will open A Call to Arms: North Carolina Military History Gallery, filled with weapons, uniforms, home front items, photographs and other objects from wars that have touched thousands of Tar Heel lives. This long-term exhibit is dedicated to North Carolinians who have answered “a call to arms.” Admission is free.
“This exhibit brings together facts and artifacts about North Carolina’s involvement in every important United States conflict,” says Ken Howard, Director, N.C. Museum of History. “Because of the significance of North Carolina’s military history,A Call to Arms will become a permanent gallery, but will feature changing exhibits about the state’s military history.”
Touch screens, videos and sound sticks will give visitors a chance to hear letters written by soldiers, test their Civil War knowledge, look at a sailor’s World War II scrapbook, and more. The exhibit is presented as part of “History Happens Here,” a yearlong celebration of North Carolina history, initiated by the Department of Cultural Resources.
“A Call to Arms is an opportunity for the museum to display military artifacts acquired both decades and literally weeks ago,” adds Curator of Military History Tom Belton. See selections from the newly acquired collection of items related to the military service of Mocksville native Col. Thomas W. Ferebee, bombardier of the B-29 bomber Enola Gay,which dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945. On view are rare documents such as the 1944 orders transferring Ferebee to Utah for top-secret training with the 509th Composite Group (formed for training to drop the atomic bomb) and the 1945 bombing plan for Hiroshima.
A Call to Arms covers the American Revolution, War of 1812, Mexican-American War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf War, and the war in Iraq. A sampling of exhibit artifacts follows:
A cavalry saber found at the Revolutionary War site of the Battle of Guilford Courthouse.
The Civil War battle flag of the 26th Regiment N.C. Troops that was captured on Oct. 27, 1864, at Hatcher’s Run, Virginia.
A World War I gas mask with bag and accessories carried by Paul E. Brauer of Warren County. He served in the 81st Infantry Division.
A 302nd Fighter Squadron patch that belonged to Vernon Haywood, a Raleigh native who served as a Tuskegee Airman in the European theater during World War II.
An Army Nurse Corps uniform worn by World War II POW Evelyn Whitlow of Caswell County. Captured in the Philippines in 1942, she spent four years in a Japanese POW camp. Her family’s in-service banner with six stars, representing four sons and two daughters in the military, appears in the exhibit.
A crude Vietcong homemade single-shot pistol made of pipe that was used in the Vietnam War.
The exhibit’s concluding section commemorates the service and sacrifices of the soldiers of the 30th Heavy Separate Brigade of the N.C. National Guard during Operation Iraqi Freedom. During the brigade’s tour of duty in Iraq, Guard members secured items such as a gas mask from Saddam Hussein’s army and a bomb-making kit used by Iraqi insurgents to make improvised explosive devices.
On June 5, look for an addition to A Call to Arms: the traveling exhibit North Carolina in the American Revolution,organized by the Society of the Cincinnati in Washington, DC. The exhibit focuses on North Carolina’s contributions to the American Revolution and will run until June 1, 2008.
For more information about the museum, call (919) 807-7900 or access the website. Parking is available in the lot across Wilmington Street. Weekend parking is free.
The N.C. Museum of History’s hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 9:00 a.m.to 5:00 p.m., and Sunday, Noon to 5:00 p.m. Admission is free. The museum is part of the Division of State