See the new Mezzanine-level exhibit, Fading Memories: Echoes of the Civil War, while enjoying refreshments, courtesy of the Women’s Board of the Museum of New Mexico, and a preview of El Rancho de las Golondrinas’ Civil War weekend, May 2–3. Participating re-enactors include the New Mexico Territorial Brass Band and Madeleine Quillen, with a Women of the Civil War demonstration. A free event.
The Civil War Territorial Brass Band is led by band director, Kristi Raven. Dedicated to the preservation and exhibition of the first generation of the American brass band tradition, this ensemble uses antique and reproduction instruments and wears authentic nineteenth century clothing to capture the sight and sounds of this dramatic era. The band’s musical repertoire contains more than 100 songs including popular ballads like “Aura Lee,” “Lorena,” and “When Johnny Comes Marching Home.” The band provides dance music of the era, including “Sunny Hours Waltz,” “Blondinette Polka” and “Mountain Bell Schottisch.” Patriotic songs abound, including “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” “Hail Columbia,” and “America.” The work of Stephen Foster is featured prominently. Many of the band’s arrangements are taken directly from the archives of Union and Confederate regimental bands. The band is involved in three types of performances: educational, historical reenactment, and musical entertainment.
Madeleine Quillen is the president of the New Mexico Commemorative Civil War Congress and a living history enthusiast. She has presented for over 30 years at El Rancho de las Golondrinas’ annual Civil War weekend. She stitches her own clothing for Civil War events and does everything from teaching etiquette classes for soldiers, playing a period specific laundress to embodying the role of Louisa Hawkins Canby, wife of Union Brigadier General Edward Richard Sprigg Canby.
Fading Memories: Echoes of the Civil War: Battles raged across America’s northern and southern states as Texas Confederates launched a plot: Head north and west through the New Mexico Territory with hopes of seizing California’s goldfields and sea ports. In 1862, battles erupted in Mesilla, Valverde, and Glorieta. Confederate forces briefly occupied the Palace of the Governors. Despite such victories, breaks in supply chains forced the Texans to retreat.
While the carnage of Shiloh, Manassas and Gettysburg roiled the nation, New Mexico’s role in the Civil War faded—like the photographs of soldiers and loved ones held for remembrance as a nation faltered and the dead were buried. What was left behind—cased-image portraits of wartime soldiers and their families; a tattered flag; post-war lithographs—failed to definitively answer our nation’s questions, leaving mysteries, unknown faces and untold stories.
In the museum’s intimate Mezzanine Gallery, three curators—Meredith Davidson, Daniel Kosharek and Tom Leech—come together, approaching the subject from different angles and inviting visitors to consider these fragments of memories and how a long-gone war still defines us as Americans.
Presented in collaboration with the Santa Fe Opera, which debuts the operatic version of Charles Frazier’s novel, Cold Mountain, this summer.
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