PHOTOS BY Chris Seward - cseward@newsobserver.com
Paige Myers, a conservator at the N.C. Museum of History, shows a Civil War coat that has been in storage since 1914. Work to preserve the coat will begin soon.
RALEIGH -- A coat worn by a North Carolina officer who was badly wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg has been stowed away at the N.C. Museum of History since 1914.
This week, a group of Civil War re-enactors will donate $10,000 to the museum so Collett Leventhorpe's coat can be preserved and put on display for the first time.
The 1st North Carolina Volunteers of the 11th Regiment has already donated more than $18,000 toward preserving artifacts from the war to be featured at the museum. Among them was the battle flag Leventhorpe carried at Gettysburg, now on display at the museum.
After the flag, the 1st/11th re-enactors group, which has about 90 members from eastern and central North Carolina and Virginia, wanted to donate money for another project.
As they waited to hear about another flag, they learned about Leventhorpe's coat in storage.
Leventhorpe was a colonel in the 11th North Carolina Regiment, the unit the 1st/11th re-enacts. Members of the group decided that helping complete the story of Leventhorpe and the 11th Regiment would be the best way to commemorate the Civil War's sesquicentennial.
"We started by taking donations so that we could give money for the coat to be preserved," said Mike Greiner, the group's treasurer. "Then we sold coins and hosted several raffles."
Leventhorpe was born in England and moved to the South, where he married an Asheville native. When the Civil War began, he joined the Confederate Army in 1861 and was badly wounded on the first day of fighting at Gettysburg.
He was held prisoner before returning to North Carolina and accepting a commission as a brigadier general in the N.C. Home Guard.
The coat at the museum dates to Leventhorpe's time as brigadier general, said Jackson Marshall, associate director of programming for the Museum of History. Eventually, the coat and the battle flag from Gettysburg will be displayed side by side, Marshall said.
The wool coat was Leventhorpe's replacement battle uniform that he wore after he was shot in the arm at Gettysburg. Preserving it will take about a year, said Paige Myers, a conservator at the museum.
The work will be done by a preservation company, but Myers must first spend a few weeks studying each aspect of the coat - such as the brass buttons and the rank insignia - so she can give specific instructions about what needs to be done to maintain its current condition.
The museum is careful to preserve, not restore, artifacts, Marshall said.
The goal is not to alter memorabilia so it looks new, but to maintain the current condition so objects won't deteriorate further.
Marshall said the Museum of History depends on donations from private groups for the preservation of artifacts.
