The Museum

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The museum focuses on the Civil War in Virginia with artifacts, photos, and dioramas.

The May 15, 1864 Battle of New Market is featured. Be sure to catch the Emmy award winning film, Field of Lost Shoes (2000) in the museum theater, the Kaminsky Gallery of Civil War Firearms and the impressive Robert Raeburn Civil War Art Gallery.

The museum was dedicated in 1970 as a monument with its metal drum-like rotunda and stylized rifles leaning against it. Inside is a red carpet representing sacrifice and a graceful ramp signifying the forward motion of the VMI Cadets charging up Bushong’s Hill.

Highlights & Features

The Stained Glass Mural Wall by Artist Mr. Ami Shamir
The Kaminsky Gallery of Civil War Firearms
The Robert Raeburn Civil War Art Collection
Field of Lost Shoes in the museum’s theater – watch docudrama
Original artifacts from the Bushong Family
Original artifacts from VMI and Battle of New Market

Did you Know?

Cadet Thomas G. Jefferson, Uniform Button and Bullet

Cadet Thomas G. Jefferson, great grand-nephew of President Thomas Jefferson, was a private in Company B at the Battle of New Market on May 15, 1864. This button was on his uniform that rainy Sunday afternoon when he was mortally wounded by a bullet, shown here. He died on May 18, 1864 in New Market, VA. He is buried beneath the statue Virginia Mourning Her Dead at VMI.

Image of bullet removed from Jefferson's body.

Stained Glass Mural Wall

One of the most popular and admired exhibits in the Virginia Museum of the Civil War is this 28-foot-long slab glass window, created by Israeli-born artist Ami Shamir. The window was the brainchild of Robert Blood, who designed the original museum exhibits for its opening in 1970.

The initial concept for the window called for clear glass that would permit views of the Allegheny Mountains to the west. However, New Market Battlefield Director James Geary noted that the view was often obscured by summer haze. Mr. Blood strongly recommended an abstract stained-glass window to convey graphic images associated with the Battle of New Market.

Artist Ami Shamir had executed a number of similar windows in Israel and Europe. For this project, he included such elements as flowing lines to suggest the Shenandoah Valley and the river of the same name, and flags and seals of Virginia Military Institute, the Confederacy, and the Union, to portray the conflict at New Market. The names of the ten cadets who were killed or mortally wounded in the battle are inscribed as the central feature.

Mr. Shamir, with Mr. Blood’s input, designed the window and fabricated the three panels in his New York studio. He then oversaw their installation in the museum. Mr. Shamir made one small error which he corrected in a unique way. Having used the European spelling “Tomas” for Cadet Thomas Garland Jefferson, he created another glass panel with “Tho” to fix the typo. In May of 2020, the glass panes were cleaned inside and out to revel the original beauty of the art piece.