Death Bonnet of Mary Surratt.

Death Bonnet of Lincoln Assassination Conspirator

Andersonville, Georgia

We're suckers for 3-D miniature scenes, and the Drummer Boy Civil War Museum has a good one -- hundreds of itty-bitty, miserable Union soldiers at the Andersonville Prison, which was just down the street. In one corner of the chaotic tabletop display, a line of prisoners are being hanged on a gallows.

The museum fills a large room with Civil War memorabilia: guns, swords, flags, photographs. A dozen or so mannequins are attired in authentic uniforms of the Confederacy and the Union.

Big day at the miniature gallows.

The museum's most famous artifact is the black bonnet worn by Mary Surratt when she, too, went to the gallows -- not at Andersonville -- as a conspirator in the Lincoln assassination. The unique relic is displayed on a simple styrofoam head with stringy black hair, and is unceremoniously packed in with items such as a Confederate penny found in Saudi Arabia, a hospital bullet with teeth marks, and "extremely rare" Civil War crackers.

Surratt, according to the sign that accompanies the bonnet, was "the first woman to be executed in the United States," and the hat was given to the general who escorted her to the gallows "when it was removed and the hood placed over her head."