1,400 artifacts trace Army lineage back to 1600s at new national museum, opening Vet’s Day – By Kyle Rempfer (Army Times) / Nov 7 2020
A saber used during the 1814 Battle of Baltimore and “hillbilly armor” crafted by underfunded U.S. troops during the early days of the Iraq War are among the 1,389 artifacts visitors can see for the first time at the National Museum of the United States Army this Veterans Day.
The 185,000-square-foot museum at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, opens Nov. 11 with free, timed-entry tickets available if reserved in advance. The museum, said its director, Tammy Call, traces the U.S. Army’s lineage back to the colonial militias that formed in the early 1600s.
“We tell the Army’s history here through the eyes and voices of soldiers,” Call said, pointing to the annotations found inside a Bible carried by one soldier who survived the Bataan Death March. “Those artifacts that have those personal connections to that soldier and tell that story, that’s what gives me chills when I walk through.”
Many artifacts are traced to actual people, either by how they were donated to the museum or through inscriptions left on the items, such as a powder horn personalized with engravings by Sgt. Levi Gassett, a minuteman present at the 1775 Siege of Boston.
