The Fight for a Star and a Stripe premiered on Tuesday evening at Visit Statesboro on South Main. The exhibit will remain for one year, so there will be ample time for residents of Statesboro, as well as visitors, to meander around the exhibit, which was curated by Georgia Southern graduate students from the Department of History.
The idea for the comprehensive project began in January of 2024, when Dr. Brent W. Tharp challenged his graduate students to create a display that would ultimately tie the past to the present, and be a source of wonder and better understanding to the residents of Bulloch County regarding The Battle of Brier Creek, which took place in nearby Sylvania and altered the trajectory of the American Revolution.
"This exhibit is a fairly unique collaboration between the Statesboro Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Georgia Southern Museum, and the history department," Tharp explains. "The students did a fantastic job."
Museum placards told the suspenseful story of The Battle of Brier Creek. Artifacts such as pieces of original firearms, pocket knife handles, and buttons from soldiers' uniforms were on display in glass cases, and artwork created by Robert L. Kroening adorned the walls of the visitor's center.
"We worked with a national park service ranger who's an illustrator, an historic illustrator, and he took the descriptions of what the students wanted, so this is original artwork developed just for the exhibit," Tharp says.
He encourages anyone who was not able to attend the opening to stop by Visit Statesboro to see the fruit of his graduate students' labor.
"This will be up for the next year, so we have time for people to really come and see this. We hope to do some lectures and programming around it as well in the future, so people should watch out for that if they are interested in the American Revolution, archeology, and this particular battle."
Visit Statesboro is located at 222 South Main Street. It is open Monday-Thursday from 9am-5pm, Friday from 9am-4pm, and Saturday from 9am-1pm.
For more information about The Battle of Brier Creek, you can read our previous coverage of the Bulloch County Historical Society's feature of the battle.
