The weathered, gray Confederate captain’s coat sat in the attic at Smith Plantation for 140 years before it was discovered.
The coat was worn by Archibald Smith Barnwell, a nephew of the family’s patriarch and founding father of Roswell, Archibald Smith. Assistant site coordinator Lydia Ellington and intern Courtney Angstadt pulled it from a box Tuesday, checking its condition for next year’s exhibit, when the house museum turns its focus from 1861 to 1862. It’s the second year in a four-year-long commemoration of the Smith family’s activities in the war.
The coat was on display seven years ago, but more information about Barnwell has come to light since then, as have new artifacts found while researching the exhibit, including sheet music from 1861.
Revisiting the past never gets old around here. New discoveries occur almost every week. “I like to joke that if the Smiths were alive today, they’d be on the TV show ‘Hoarders,’” Ellington said.
The family saved virtually everything they owned, and documented their lives meticulously. Records have been discovered with minute details, including files on two pigs, Albert and Victoria, with notes on how much they weighed and what they were fed each day.
A human appendix is among the more unusual items staff and docents have discovered over the years. “I found a metal syringe the other day that looks to be from the 1800s,” said Collections Manager Erica Duvic.
“Things show up in the strangest places. People will be out walking the grounds and bring something in. Last week it was an ink bottle.”
Duvic said there are still items in the 10 original outbuildings that haven’t been seen yet and boxes and trunks that haven’t been opened.
“The focus is more on up-keeping the house. We always say that processing this collection the way we would like to would take more full-time people than we’d be able to afford."
The Smith property belonged to the family from 1845 to 1985. Arthur William Smith, Archibald Smith's grandson, was the last member of the family to live there, moving in in 1940, when electricity and indoor plumbing were added to the house. Mamie Cotton, a cook for the Smith's, remained in the home until her death in 1994.
"This is a unique house museum," Ellington said. "There are elements of three generations who lived here. This house has seen so much history."
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