The Civil War Through Many Lenses: Living History at Lee-Fendall

This article featured on the Lee-Fendall House Museum website captures the Civil War Living History Day event where I had the honor of presenting my "Nameless and Faceless" poetry. Walking through rooms that once served as a Union hospital made the history come alive in a way that was truly unforgettable.

On May 16th, Lee-Fendall hosted an engaging afternoon centered around a unique selection of Civil War historians. Civil War Living History Day, a two hour program, welcomed visitors onto the property in an effort to highlight the two year period in which the house served as the Grosvenor Branch Hospital.

From the spring of 1863 until the end of the war in April of 1865, the doctors, nurses, and hospital staff treated over 1,700 soldiers – all but one hundred survived. Today, we highlight this as one of Lee-Fendall’s many fascinating chapters through a variety of tours and programs, including Civil War Living History Day.

As visitors entered the home, they were greeted by the first of four panelists: Brent Reidenbach. After stumbling upon a memorial dedicated to his cousin, Martin Swick, Brent fell down a rabbit hole to uncover his relative’s experience of the Civil War. It is throughout this research that Brent discovered Martin was one of the one hundred soldiers who died at the Grosvenor Branch Hospital, right here in this home.

As a military historian, Brent detailed the unique wartime experiences of various individuals injured on the Civil War battlefields and treated right where Brent now stood. His anecdotal research provided program participants with an excellent foundation for understanding life and death at the Grosvenor Branch Hospital.

The second station was Civil War historian and award winning poet, Lisa Samia. Set up in our newly renovated lecture room, the author gave readings of her humanistic poetry, emphasizing the war’s physical, emotional, and financial destruction. Having previously been awarded two National Park Service Artist in Residency Awards from Gettysburg and Manassas, Lisa has spent years traversing the battlefields, both physically and poetically.

Much of Lisa’s poetry centers around the voices of those who are often neglected in historical record; her publications are all titled a variation of The Nameless and Faceless of the Civil War. For participants of Civil War Living History Day, Lisa’s work provided poetic depictions of the average soldier’s experience in life and death.

After Lisa, participants made their way outside to our two medicinal specialists, the first being Lee-Fendall’s own Roger Monthey. As a Lee-Fendall board member, naturalist, and Civil War historian, Roger has been instrumental in introducing native and medicinal plants back into the garden. Alongside dozens of beautiful florals and aromatics, the space is dotted with the same plants that were cultivated at the Grosvenor Branch Hospital. Through a variety of resources, Roger shared his knowledge with participants, explaining the various medicinal plants, the way in which they were grown on the property, and their usages.

As Lee-Fendall’s lead gardener, Roger has begun cultivating a soldier’s resting garden in the back of the property. This corner once held the dead house, built to store the bodies of the soldiers who died at Grosvenor Branch. On Civil War Living History Day, participants were encouraged by Roger to explore the assortment of commemorative native Virginia plants creeping out of the ground.

Last but certainly not least, visitors rounded out their Dr. Michael Hill, a dedicated volunteer of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine. Dr. Hill is a retired physician who blends his love of Civil War history with his knowledge of medicine. In doing so, he educated program participants by sharing a unique perspective on the practices and procedures that took place at Grosvenor Branch.

One of Dr. Hill’s many contributions included a replication of a full Civil War amputation kit. As he explained each tool and its usage, the experiences of those who were operated on in the house became incredibly clear. For all of the brutality that went into these surgical procedures and operations, the near experimental nature of Civil War medicine provided a foundation of knowledge for the practices we have today.

Stay tuned for Living History Day 2027!