美国国家公共电台 NPR Family Heirloom, National Treasure: Rare Photos Show Black Civil War Soldiers

Family Heirloom, National Treasure: Rare Photos Show Black Civil War Soldiers 

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If you visit the Smithsonian's new National Museum of African American History and Culture opening this week in Washington, you might just walk by a photo album on display and not notice it. It's that small. But we bet you'll stop at the Prickitt Civil War album once you hear the story behind it from NPR's Cheryl Corley.

CHERYL CORLEY, BYLINE²: Each of the photos in Captain William A. Prickitt's album, all of several black Civil War soldiers under his command, could fit in a locket. The album itself, just 2 inches tall, could be easily misplaced. His great granddaughter, Aneita Atwood Gates, says she heard the stories about the captain but growing up rarely saw the album. And she kept it tucked away in a box on a laundry room shelf. So Gates says she and other family members were stunned³ when they found out the significance of their miniature family heirloom.

ANEITA ATWOOD GATES: Because we just assumed that there were other of these albums out there. Up to then, it was just this wonderful little treasure we had. But then it was like, oh, my gosh, I've got a responsibility, you know, a major responsibility.

CORLEY: Gates says there was good reason why her great grandfather wanted the photos of the black soldiers in his company. At one point during the war, Captain Prickitt became extremely ill, and some of the soldiers took care of him.

GATES: The men saved my great-grandfather's life. He got dysentery which went through the camps. The camps were very unsanitary.

CORLEY: By most estimates, about 200,000 black soldiers served in the Union army. The commanders of the U.S. Colored Troops, or USCT, were white. Gates says her family was torn at first about donating the Prickitt album to the Smithsonian. They feared it would be lost in a museum so large, and another museum closer to home wanted it, too. And the family finally realized it was precious to the captain who carried it in his pocket.

GATES: I know all the men had to think a lot about him and he of them, or he wouldn't have had this little album of them with all their pictures. And he wouldn't have carefully written their names in it. And that's what makes it so special.

CORLEY: There are 18 photos in the album, both paper prints and tintypes - tiny headshots of 17 soldiers who served in company G. One of the soldiers pictured twice carries a gun in one photo, not in the other. All are in uniform. Some wear hats with the insignia of a bugle⁴, the designation for infantry⁵.

The names for all but one are written on the mat surrounding each photo, presumably by Captain Prickitt. Smithsonian curator Michele Gates Moresi says to have photos where black civil war soldiers are identified was intriguing⁶.

MICHELE GATES MORESI: That's pretty rare actually, so - and to have, you know, a group from the same regiment⁷ with that information. You know, there are images of African-American soldiers with their troops that are, you know, available. Some of them are panoramic⁸. We have a couple in our collection. But you don't always know who's who.

CORLEY: It was a friend of the Gates family who first contacted the Smithsonian. Shayne Davidson is an artist an amateur genealogist⁹ who's drawn¹⁰ portraits of the soldiers and written a book about them. First she began researching the Gates family tree and then dug up information about the black soldiers using military records and census¹¹ information.

SHAYNE DAVIDSON: Some were born free. Some were slaves. Some were escaped slaves, you know, who got away and then enlisted¹² in the USCT. And then there were two men who were enlisted by their slave holder¹³.

CORLEY: Some slave slaveholders could get as much as $300 for enlisting¹⁴ men, and the slaves won their freedom. Not only did Davidson find out about the background of the soldiers. She actually found some of their descendants.

VANESSA TALL BRYANT: My name is Vanessa Tall Bryant. James Tall was my grandfather.

CORLEY: Yes, James Tall, the Civil War soldier pictured in the album twice, was not her great-grandfather but her grandfather. Bryant, who is in her early 50s, says Tall lived a long life, married three times and had 16 children, fathering some like her dad at an elderly age. When he enlisted during the Civil War, James Tall was very young.

BRYANT: He was a slave near Murfreesboro, Tenn., and as a teenager, he was sent by his slave owner to actually shoe a horse at a neighboring farm. And while he was there, the person that was shoeing the horse talked to him about the Union troops that were around the area and told him he may want to take that opportunity to ride out.

CORLEY: He took the opportunity and joined the Union Army. Bryant first heard of Captain Prickitt when her family's search of military and pension records listed him as one of her grandfather's commanding officers. She found out about her grandfather's photo in the Prickitt album just a year after her father, Siegel Tall, James's son, died at the age of 91.

BRYANT: I think he recalled a photo being on the fireplace on the mantle¹⁵ in his house, a small tintype when he was a child. That house burned, so that picture didn't survive. So it was a very emotional moment thinking that, wow, you wish your dad could have been here to see it.

CORLEY: Bryant says she plans to travel to Washington to see the album. Aneita Gates says now everyone will be able to see the members of the 25th Regiment of the USCT.

GATES: Gives me goosebumps to share this little story between an officer and his men.

CORLEY: Gates says that's what her family wanted - a national stage for her great-grandfather's miniature album of black Civil War soldiers. Cheryl Corley, NPR News.

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 stunned   

adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The fall stunned me for a moment. 那一下摔得我昏迷了片刻。
• The leaders of the Kopper Company were then stunned speechless. 科伯公司的领导们当时被惊得目瞪口呆。

4 bugle   

n.军号，号角，喇叭；v.吹号，吹号召集

参考例句：

• When he heard the bugle call, he caught up his gun and dashed out.他一听到军号声就抓起枪冲了出去。
• As the bugle sounded we ran to the sports ground and fell in.军号一响，我们就跑到运动场集合站队。

5 infantry   

n.[总称]步兵(部队)

参考例句：

• The infantry were equipped with flame throwers.步兵都装备有喷火器。
• We have less infantry than the enemy.我们的步兵比敌人少。

6 intriguing   

adj.有趣的；迷人的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的现在分词)；激起…的好奇心

参考例句：

• These discoveries raise intriguing questions. 这些发现带来了非常有趣的问题。
• It all sounds very intriguing. 这些听起来都很有趣。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 regiment   

n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制

参考例句：

• As he hated army life,he decide to desert his regiment.因为他嫌恶军队生活，所以他决心背弃自己所在的那个团。
• They reformed a division into a regiment.他们将一个师整编成为一个团。

8 panoramic   

adj. 全景的

参考例句：

• Most rooms enjoy panoramic views of the sea. 大多数房间都能看到海的全景。
• In a panoramic survey of nature, speed is interesting because it has a ceiling. 概观自然全景，速率是有趣的，因为它有一个上限。

9 genealogist   

系谱学者

参考例句：

• Misha Defonseca acknowledged her bestselling Holocaust story as a fake after a genealogist outed her. MishaDefonseca在当一位系谱学者揭露她之后承认自己关于二战犹太大屠杀的畅销书是捏造的。

10 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

11 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

12 enlisted   

adj.应募入伍的v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的过去式和过去分词 )；获得（帮助或支持）

参考例句：

• enlisted men and women 男兵和女兵
• He enlisted with the air force to fight against the enemy. 他应募加入空军对敌作战。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

13 holder   

n.持有者，占有者；(台，架等)支持物

参考例句：

• The holder of the office of chairman is reponsible for arranging meetings.担任主席职位的人负责安排会议。
• That runner is the holder of the world record for the hundred-yard dash.那位运动员是一百码赛跑世界纪录的保持者。

14 enlisting   

v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的现在分词 )；获得（帮助或支持）

参考例句：

• He thought about enlisting-about the Spanish legion-about a profession. 他想去打仗，想参加西班牙军团，想找个职业。 来自辞典例句
• They are not enlisting men over thirty-five. 他们不召超过35岁的人入伍。 来自辞典例句

15 mantle   

n.斗篷，覆罩之物，罩子；v.罩住，覆盖，脸红

参考例句：

• The earth had donned her mantle of brightest green.大地披上了苍翠欲滴的绿色斗篷。
• The mountain was covered with a mantle of snow.山上覆盖着一层雪。