About 10 years ago I went to the National Civil War Museum.  Like any historical museum, it was filled with exhibits that made you think, made you sad and sometimes made you angry with regards to how people justified backward and unjust ways of living years ago.

Today, the museum still offers all those necessary elements but the exhibits have been updated.  They do a great job conveying the power, fear and culture surrounding slavery, complete with weapons and devices of submission along with excerpts of slave owner’s worry over losing their way of life, depending on the war’s outcome.

As expected, Abraham Lincoln was highly featured.  His elegant words still resonate today.

Near the end of the museum’s self-guided tour, there was a wall which had a collection of plaques featuring a “War of Firsts.”

This war was unique in so many ways.  Yes, in some ways each war seems to only create new ways of killing each other.  But this war had many things at stake.  It not only divided the country’s interests, but also families and the culture.  North and South, black and white, harvesters and manufacturers all were split and torn on many levels.  And from great turmoil comes great lessons…ones we should never forget, or need to learn again.