Carol Toppin of Nags Head and Columbia recently donated all the Civil War artifacts her late first husband Ricky Swain had in his collection when he died in 1978 while attempting to defuse a Civil War shell. From left are Martha Battle Jackson, chief curator for the NC Department of Cultural Resources; Toppin; Donny Taylor, site manager at the Bentonville Battlefield; David Stone, curator for the CSS Neuse Museum in Kinston; and Rob McClees, local Civil War author and re-enactor. Jackson removed the collection to Raleigh on May 15 for cataloging and distribution to Civil War historic sites in North Carolina.