Still Fighting: Inside the Dedication of the National Confederate Museum

Gabby Raymond
Updated

Amid a period of national reckoning regarding Confederate statues, park names and other symbology and iconography, The Sons of Confederate Veterans is holding a dedication ceremony Friday at the site of the National Confederate Museum, an upcoming and controversial museum dedicated to the Confederacy.

The $5 million museum is being built at the group’s headquarters in Columbia, Tennessee, at the onetime home of Confederate Col. Abram M. Looney. The event was intended to be a grand opening, but weather delays caused construction delays, and the museum will not be open until at least 2019.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans is a non-profit made up of male descendents of Confederate combatants.

“At the completion of this museum, it will be out of the reach of the long arm of political correctness,” The Sons of Confederate Veterans’ Paul Gramling told the Columbia Daily Herald.

Photographer Mark Peterson will be documenting the dedication ceremony for TIME. “For the last few months I have gone to White National conferences, Confederate Memorial Services and Confederate Monument fights,” says Peterson. “I have been looking at how we are still fighting the Civil War in the streets, the history books and state legislatures.”

Reenactors of confederate soldiers and wives attend the dedication of the National Confederate Museum in Elm Springs in Columbia, Tenn. on July 20.
Reenactors of confederate soldiers and wives attend the dedication of the National Confederate Museum in Elm Springs in Columbia, Tenn. on July 20.
A race car sponsored by the Sons of Confederate Veterans sits outside the hotel hosting the national convention.
A race car sponsored by the Sons of Confederate Veterans sits outside the hotel hosting the national convention.
Shoes of attendees at the museum's dedication.
Shoes of attendees at the museum's dedication.
Artist and Confederate supporter Gregory Goodwin Newson at his booth in the vendors area of the Sons of Confederate Veterans national convention. Newson paints pictures of Black Confederate soldiers.
Artist and Confederate supporter Gregory Goodwin Newson at his booth in the vendors area of the Sons of Confederate Veterans national convention. Newson paints pictures of Black Confederate soldiers.
Reenactors at the museum's dedication.
Reenactors at the museum's dedication.
Vice commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Paul Gramling, attends the dedication.
Vice commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Paul Gramling, attends the dedication.
Reenactors of Confederate soldiers at the dedication.
Reenactors of Confederate soldiers at the dedication.
Former SCV commander Charles McMichael, of Shreveport, La., helped start the museum back when he was commander.
Former SCV commander Charles McMichael, of Shreveport, La., helped start the museum back when he was commander.
The Knibb’s battery, a reenactment organization from Richmond, Va., prepare a canon for the dedication.
The Knibb’s battery, a reenactment organization from Richmond, Va., prepare a canon for the dedication.
Author Barbara Marthal, whose husband is a member of the SCV, in the vendor area of the SCV national convention.
Author Barbara Marthal, whose husband is a member of the SCV, in the vendor area of the SCV national convention.
A reenactor at the Elm Springs house, which serves as the Sons of Confederate Veterans General Headquarters, in Columbia, Tenn.
A reenactor at the Elm Springs house, which serves as the Sons of Confederate Veterans General Headquarters, in Columbia, Tenn.
Reenactors at the museum's dedication.
Reenactors at the museum's dedication.
Attendees at the dedication.
Attendees at the dedication.