Confederate Odyssey: The George W. Wray Jr. Civil War Collection

Throughout his life, Atlanta resident George W. Wray Jr. (1936-2004) built a collection of more than six hundred of the rarest Confederate artifacts, including firearms and swords, as well as flags, uniforms, and accoutrements. Today, Wray’s collection forms an integral part of the Atlanta History Center’s holdings of eleven thousand Civil War artifacts.

In commemoration of the Civil War Sesquicentennial, the Atlanta History Center presents Confederate Odyssey: The George W. Wray Jr. Civil War Collection, July 18, 2014 through April 26, 2015. On display for the first time are nearly two hundred artifacts, including the rarest-of-the-rare: Southern–made uniforms, flags, firearms, bayonets, and small-caliber artillery pieces, many of which are one-of-a-kind items.  All tell the story of how a pre-industrial Confederacy managed to sustain a modern industrial war for four long years.

The exhibition is accompanied by a richly-illustrated, full-color catalog of the Atlanta History Center’s George W. Wray Jr. Civil War Collection published by the University of Georgia Press in October 2014.

Confederate Odyssey is a complementary exhibition to the History Center’s award-winning signature exhibition, Turning Point: The American Civil War, which explores the entire Civil War, how and why Americans fought, and why the war was critical to our nation. Confederate Odyssey examines the Confederate experience and how a slave-based society attempted to fight an industrial war with only the weapons at hand, those it could purchase abroad, and the few it could manufacture domestically. In this effort, the Confederate government exercised previously unheard-of authority, rigidly controlling raw materials, transportation and labor – including slave labor. 

“The Wray Collection is more than a mere collection of relics,” says Dr. Gordon Jones, Senior Military Historian and Curator at the Atlanta History Center, “It is a tale of hard historical truths revealed in small details. Each object in this exhibition tells the story of the society that created it.”

Confederate Odyssey is also a treasure-trove of stories about Americans living, fighting, and dying during the Civil War. Behind each artifact in this exhibition is an incredible story of personal tragedy and triumph in the chaos of war. Arranged into nine thoughtful themes, visitors discover the amazing personal stories of those who carried or wore these objects into battle. Here, you see the blood-spattered coat of a seventeen-year-old Georgia boy killed at the Battle of Chickamauga, the flag carried by a Georgia regiment as it advanced into a hail of bullets during the July 22, 1864, Battle of Atlanta, and a sharpshooter rifle made by a New Hampshire gunsmith who worked for the Confederacy before returning to his native state in 1866. Also on display are the patent model and prototype of George W. Morse’s breech-loading gun, the direct predecessor of all modern firearms.  

Exhibition Themes:

• Guns of the Industrial Revolution: State-of-the-art firearms made in the North before the war and widely copied in the Confederacy – though the Confederacy lacked the capacity to manufacture interchangeable parts. 

• Makeshifts and Alterations: The early – and sometimes desperate -- attempts by Southern gun makers to convert obsolete arms into accurate weapons to supply thousands of new volunteers in 1861.

• Ploughshares Into Swords: How the Confederacy armed itself with swords, bayonets, and fighting knives -- though many would be practically useless in modern combat.

• A War Between the States: The story of the firearms made by and for the individual states, including Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Texas. Usually made by private manufacturers in very small quantities, these ersatz guns are among the rarest in the Wray Collection. 

• Guns for Cotton: How the Confederacy obtained half-a-million modern firearms -- more than ninety-percent of the total it needed -- by purchasing them in England and importing them through the Union Navy’s blockade.   

• Sir Joseph Whitworth’s Rifles: The Confederacy’s quest for the best and most accurate sniper rifles of the era, all imported from England at extremely high prices. Today, these arms are the rarest-of-the-rare. 

• George W. Morse and the Quest for a Better Breechloader: How a brilliant New Hampshire-born gun maker invented the system on which all modern firearms are based – but committed the worst professional blunder of his life when he followed his conscience and went to work for the Confederacy.

• Wearing of the Gray: Confederate uniforms, including rare enlisted uniforms, caps, and the bloodstained coat of a seventeen-year-old boy killed at the Battle of Chickamauga.

• Banners of Honor: Confederate battle flags, including a battle-worn emblem flown at the battles for Atlanta in 1864 and another that protected the Confederacy’s border with Mexico.

This exhibition is free to members; included in the cost of general admission for nonmembers. For information or to purchase admission tickets, please visit AtlantaHistoryCenter.com.

ABOUT TURNING POINT: THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR EXHIBTION:

The Civil War was a turning point in American history. At 9,200 square feet, Turning Point is the largest Civil War exhibition in the Southeast telling the story of the war from start to finish and beyond. Included are over 1,400 original Union and Confederate artifacts, plus photographs, dioramas, videos, and interactive components covering the causes of the war, soldiers’ lives, wartime manufacturing, the home front and the bloody, decisive campaigns of 1864. A final section encourages guests to search for the consequences and meaning of the war, which claimed 670,000 American lives – more than the combined number of Americans killed in all other wars from the Revolutionary War through Vietnam.

The heart of the exhibition is the DuBose Civil War Collection, one of the largest collections of Civil War memorabilia in the world. On display from the Thomas Swift Dickey Civil War Ordnance Collection and private collections are the Confederate States flag that flew over Atlanta at the time of its capture; a Union supply wagon used by Sherman’s army; General Patrick Cleburne’s sword; the logbooks of the CSS Shenandoah; the diary of a Union soldier who died at Andersonville prison; uniforms from both armies; firearms; artillery; soldiers’ personal items; letters; diaries; medical equipment; civilian clothing; veterans’ memorabilia, and much more. Turning Point audio tours are available. The audio tour is free and can be obtained at the Atlanta History Museum Admissions Desk.

Support:The DuBose Gallery is made possible by a gift from Mrs. Beverly M. DuBose Jr. The exhibition is also sponsored by an anonymous donor and Mr. and Mrs. W. Barrett Howell. Installation of Turning Point: The American Civil War was supported by Balentine & Company.

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