The Civil War holds an unbreakable grip on American thought, unmatched by any other event in our nation's history. A host of reasons explains this fascination. The Civil War was the largest of our wars in terms of participation, yet it was principally waged in one quadrant of the country. The three million young men who left their homes to fight for their respective causes were never more than citizen-soldiers, but their four-year struggle ultimately gave birth in fact to a United States that had existed in name only.
Obtaining such nationhood cost the lives of 700,000 Northerners and Southerners, a figure that, in proportion to today's population, translates into 15 million fatalities. Matching the mental anguish of death was the physical destruction. No other region in the Western Hemisphere has ever suffered the devastation experienced by the Commonwealth of Virginia in this 1861-1865 period. The impact of the war we fought with each other is a haunting event that intrigues us, even inspires us, with the passing years.
One can never understand what the United States is until one understands what the Civil War was. The impact of that conflict dominates American life. The Civil War was a spawning ground for an almost endless list of customs: standard time, labor unions, women in the fields of teaching and nursing, the Congressional Medal of Honor, 2,000 new songs, an internal revenue service, a national motto, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving as a national holiday, sending flowers to a funeral, and Santa Claus--just to name a few. American life today would be vastly different indeed but for alterations created by the Civil War. Each one of us should feel an obligation to those embattled generations who sacrificed life, limb, and talent to give us true nationhood.
With Virginia serving as the major battleground of the Civil War, it seems logical that Virginia's major land-grant--and largest--university, Virginia Tech, should become the base for developing and promoting programs about the Civil War, programs that not only will educate our citizens, but will also enhance our heritage. For the past 30 years, the university has developed the reputation as a focal point for Civil War study in the Old Dominion. The time has now come to channel that leading role into a more concentrated and formal effort.
A strong framework already exists for a Virginia Center for Civil War Studies on the Blacksburg campus. Building on the programs now in place, efforts can be expanded into such areas as increased media involvement, greater use of computer technology, scholars-in-residence programs, book publication under the center's imprimatur, graduate fellowships, additional symposia that target both academic and public audiences, stronger attention to library acquisitions--especially manuscripts--and wide-ranging cooperative efforts with state and national agencies active in the Civil War field. The opportunities for a Civil War center are virtually endless. Equally as important, such a comprehensive program of outreach would fulfill basic land-grant missions of the university to impart knowledge to the people while being the axis of Virginia higher education.
I hope you will join me in supporting this worthwhile effort to create a Virginia Center for Civil War Studies.
