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Epilogue A Mixed Legacy It is almost impossible for our young people of today to believe that in 1890, when the charter was secured [for the Confederate Museum], this splendid memorial to the men of the sixties emanated from the brains of a band of women, and has been carried on by women ever since. —sally archer anderson, cmls president, 1926 One hundred and forty years after the close of the Civil War, reminders of the Confederacy can be seen and in many ways felt in nearly every southern community. Rare is the southern town or city that cannot boast of a Confederate cemetery or, at the very least, a marble statue dedicated to its Confederate soldiers standing guard over the town square or courthouse lawn. Along with these physical reminders of the South’s history, numerous southern communities continue to observe many of the traditions put in place by the Ladies’ Memorial Associations (lmas) in the 1860s. Celebrations of Confederate Memorial Days persist in a manner reminiscent of the earliest celebrations, replete with floral offerings, Confederate battle flags, patriotic dirges such as “Dixie,” and speakers lauding the bravery and sacri- fice of southern soldiers. In nearly every instance, however, lmas no longer care for the cemeteries nor do they direct the rituals. In their place, members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (udc) or Sons of Confederate Veterans have stepped forward to prolong the traditions. Even as their legacy continues, the Ladies have largely been forgotten with the passage of time. Beginning with their decline in the early twentieth century, lmas have receded from the southern landscape, leaving only three known associations in Virginia, those in Fredericksburg, Petersburg, and New Market. The reasons and means by which these three managed to sustain themselves over the years—when others did not—are unclear. Nevertheless, the lmas in these 196 Epilogue locales remain dedicated to many of the same projects and goals as their predecessors of the last century: maintaining cemeteries, providing information to soldiers’ descendants regarding grave locations, and sponsoring Memorial Day celebrations. Still other lmas have transformed their associations since the early 1900s. In Lynchburg, for example, a small but devoted group of women persisted as the caretakers of the Confederate section of the Old City Cemetery until 1993, when the group took on the much larger civilian section. While the organization—known today as the “Southern Memorial Association ”—retains its role as custodian of the burial ground, its biracial membership of eighteen men and women stands as a stark contrast to the lma’s 1866 composition.¹ Richmond’s Hollywood association, too, has evolved since its Reconstruction era origins.² The Hollywood Memorial Association ceased to exist sometime in the mid-twentieth century, but its auxiliary group, the Confederate Memorial Literary Society (cmls), continues to operate the museum, attracting at its height, more than 88,000 annual visitors. In 1969, it altered its direction , revising its organizational structure, constructing a new museum to house its ever-growing collections, restoring the White House, and changing the name from the Confederate Museum to the Museum of the Confederacy. The state room arrangement became obsolete, and the board eliminated the regent system in the 1980s. In 1991, the men’s advisory board abolished itself, and the society’s board elected its first male and black members, effectively ending a century of leadership by white women.³ Along with the change in organizational structure came a new focus in the museum’s interpretation of the Civil War and Confederacy. During the 1980s, the museum featured one of the first examinations of southern social history in its exhibit, “The People of the Confederacy,” and provided a chronological framework in “The Confederate Years”—context that had been absent in its early years. With the support of the National Endowment for the Humanities, in 1991, the museum unveiled a new and pathbreaking exhibit entitled “Before Freedom Came: African American Life in the Antebellum South.” The institution founded to glorify the white South had evolved into one that provided a glimpse into the harsh realities of life for southern blacks. Although the museum no longer admits schoolchildren free of charge, it remains committed to educating the next generation and even has programs designed to supplement Standards of Learning exams given in Virginia’s public schools.⁴ Today, a dwindling number of visitors and encroachment by Virginia Commonwealth University’s medical campus and hospital jeopardize the fate of the Museum of the Confederacy. The three-quarter-acre museum...

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