Hear the story of a cache of letters from a Union soldier to his father - found 25 years ago in a storage room at The Governor's Academy. Join us at The Governor's Academy for this special event. Admission is free and a light reception will be served.
An intriguing cache of letters and other memorabilia associated with a Union soldier in the American Civil War was discovered 25 years ago in an archival storage room at The Governor's Academy. They and other Civil War-era artifacts will be publicly displayed for the first time in an in-person program co-sponsored by the Museum of Old Newbury and the Academy. A historian's quest to learn about the soldier who wrote those letters uncovered an archetypal story of the American Civil War with haunting echoes in our own time.
The collection includes personal and military keepsakes, battlefield sketches, botanical mementos, letters, images, and more.
These items belonged to Salisbury native Benjamin Dorr, who served during the Civil War as rector of Philadelphia's famed Christ Church (Episcopal), known as "The Nation's Church," and his eldest son, Capt. William White Dorr, killed at Spotsylvania and memorialized as an American hero among that historic church's monuments to a pantheon of American Founders, including President Washington, Franklin, and signers of the American Declaration. The exhibit also includes pieces of Capt. Dorr's uniform and soldier's kit and assorted other items belonging to the Rev. Dorr and his wife, Esther Kettell Odin Dorr.
The program features several speakers:
• Charles E. Dorr of Madison, GA, who descends from the Rev. Dorr's youngest son and whose generous benefaction to the Academy funded the preservation of its Dorr Collection
• former Maine state Sen. Everett "Brownie" Carson, who descends from one of the Rev. Dorr's daughters
• Sharon Slater, historian and archivist at the Academy
• Bill Quigley, the historian at the Academy who, inspired by this archival find, recovered what one reviewer describes as "an unknown but riveting story of the Civil War," the story told in Bill's book Pure Heart: The Faith of a Father and Son in the War for a More Perfect Union (Kent St. U. Press, 2016).
The event will take place in the Frost building at Governor's Academy, #13 on this campus map; parking is available across the road.
Below: Left: Captain William White Dorr; right: his father, Rev. Benjamin Dorr. Courtesy images.
