- There is a lot to see hereat the Museum of the Bible

and in line with Memorial Day,

there are several Bibles thataccompanied soldiers into war.

They tell powerful stories.

- This is our Bible in America Gallery

where we talk aboutthe impact of the Bible

from the Pilgrims all theway down to the present day.

- [Jenna] Meet Dr. Jeffrey Kloha,

the museum's chief curatorial officer.

- We have several objects

that relate to really bothsides in the Civil War

and how the Bible was a sourceof comfort and encouragement

to soldiers of both sideson a personal level.

- [Jenna] In this particular case,

items belonging to George Rome,

who served on one of the firstAfrican American regiments.

- [Jeffrey] He posed inhis military uniform.

- [Jenna] Yeah.

- [Jeffrey] So pretty cool

that we have all fromone individual like that.

- It's neat to put a faceto some of these artifacts.

- Yeah, I mean there's the guy in 1864

who's using this Bible, right?- Mm-hmm.

- [Jenna] There's also a veryfamous piece of Americana.

- The "Battle Hymn of the Republic" was-

- Hmm.

- Yeah, a Civil War song.

It was written by Julia Ward Howe.

- [Jenna] Is that her right there?

- [Jeffrey] That's her there, yep.

And she wrote this actuallyjust about a mile away from here

at the Willard Hotel.

- [Jenna] A song she wroteto bolster the troops.

- And partly, she says, toreplace the less than pious songs

that they were singing, (laughs) right?

- [Jenna] Behind the scenes,

Jeff takes us beneath the museum

where they keep even more war time Bibles.

This letter, written byPresident Woodrow Wilson in 1917,

encouraging soldiers to read the Bible.

- This proclamationwould be printed inside

these little pocket Bibles

which would be distributed to soldiers.

- [Jenna] And then there's this one.

- Yeah, a little bit of character.

Now, this is a Civil War era Bible

and it's actually in German.

- [Jenna] What's unique about it.

- See that stain there?

That's almost certainly bloodthat ended up on the Bible

and left this stain from the Civil War.

- Wow.

- So again, shows the cost of war

and the price people paidto maintain our freedom.

- [Jenna] One Bible isparticularly special to Jeff.

- This one, I threw in here.

Now, this is not actuallyin the museum collection,

it was owned by my grandfather, John Flak,

who served in the Second World War.

- [Jenna] Jeff's grandfather

fought in the Battle of the Bulge.

- This was given to him by his pastor.

It's a leather cover and youcould tell it's quite worn.

He must have carried it allover in his battle gear.

- [Jenna] Back upstairs,more one-of-a-kind Bibles,

including those donatedby past presidents.

A President Donald Trump,

and the museum's newest addition,

a Bible from President Jimmy Carter,

received just a few weeks ago.

- Inside the front cover

is the name and phone numberof the Sunday school teacher

from First Baptist Church here in DC

and we know from presidential archives

that he attended that church60 times during his presidency.