Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum wants to educate Pittsburgh about a part of its history that usually doesn’t get much attention.
The Oakland institution honoring military veterans and personnel has partnered with digital teaching platform Varsity Tutors to put on a virtual class Tuesday called “African Americans in the Civil War” that highlights the contributions of local Black soldiers who fought with the Union Army.
Tuesday’s 45-minute program starts at 7 p.m. and will be available for free at varsitytutors.com. It will be made available on YouTube on Wednesday.
“The biggest thing we want them to understand is the significant role African Americans played during the Civil War,” said Tim Neff, Soldiers & Sailors’ director of museum and education. “That’s the most important thing here, making sure that history is not forgotten and to understand in general that they were fighting and weren’t even citizens yet.”
The class focuses mostly on Matthew Nesbitt, a former slave who fought in the Civil War as a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and settled in Pittsburgh after earning his freedom. There will be an interactive “what would you do” element in that participants will be asked how they would handle certain obstacles that Nesbitt faced.
“It’s really helpful to see it through one person’s eyes,” said Brian Glavin, Varsity Tutors’ chief academic officer. “So often you see the overview. ... What was really at stake? What risks were they taking? That’s why Matthew Nesbitt’s story is so great for that.”
“African Americans in the Civil War” will also discuss Alexander Kelly and James H. Bronson, two Civil War soldiers from the Pittsburgh area who became Medal of Honor recipients.
This is the third program Soldiers & Sailors and Varsity Tutors have collaborated on; the others were about Veterans Day and military uniforms. Glavin said that this was a perfect Black History Month class and that Varsity Tutors, which includes more than 40,000 tutors in more than 3,000 subjects, made a point this year to offer more programs with a social conscience.
“As a company that had recently tapped into this large format type of platform, we saw ourselves as having a unique opportunity to fill a public need,” he said.
Neff said that Soldiers & Sailors will continue to “keep delivering stories from our museum and lessons from all those who served our country” through its collaboration with Varsity Tutors.
“When we do these classes, we’re trying to do something that appeals to the entire country,” he said. “Because most of our stories are related to Western Pennsylvania, the people tuning in from this area will get this special insight into local history.”
Joshua Axelrod: jaxelrod@post-gazette.com and Twitter @jaxel222.
First Published: February 22, 2021, 9:16 p.m.
