In college my roommate, an Arkansan, and I often discussed history. One afternoon – I will never forget – she turned her tiny torso and snapped: “Yankees do not understand! America did not fight a Civil War. It was the War of Northern Aggression.” Aggression was news to me. I am a Hoosier by birth.
The United Daughters of the Confederacy website explains: “The Conflict (1861-1865) between the Northern States (The Union) and the Southern States which seceded from the Union to form the Confederate States has been given many names. The official Union designation was ‘The War of Rebellion.’ In the South, the conflict is [most often] called ‘The War Between the States.’”
The UDC was established in 1894, an outgrowth of Confederate memorial, monument and veterans organizations. Membership is open to women of appropriate age who are blood descendants of Confederate soldiers. Its mission is “to collect and preserve the material necessary for a truthful history of the War Between the States.”
Alexandria’s R.E. Lee Camp United Confederate Veterans Museum is owned and operated by the Mary Custis Lee-17th Virginia Regiment Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The Museum – open infrequently – is one of five privately-owned Old Town houses featured on the April 17 Historic Garden Week Tour. Celebrated War heroes include honorary Camp member Jefferson Davis, Generals Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee.
Robert E. Lee spent his boyhood in Alexandria. Lee’s early education included both the Alexandria Academy and the Hallowell School. Said Lee of Alexandria, “There is no community to which my affections more strongly cling…my earliest and oldest friends.”
According to R.E. Lee Camp veteran Edgar Warfield’s Memoirs, Colonel Robert E. Lee was in the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum; then J. Leadbeater & Son when Lt. J.E.B. Stuart arrived on October 17, 1859 at Arlington House – also Alexandria – with Lee’s orders “to proceed to Harper’s Ferry to suppress the insurrection of John Brown.” On August 2, 1932 Warfield, Gardiner L. Boothe III, and the Camp “unveiled a silver tablet” to commemorate the pre-War event.
In 1861 US Senator Jefferson Davis, his State of Mississippi and others, seceded from the Union to form a confederation known as the Confederate States of America. Davis was elected President of the Confederacy in February 1861.
“Mr. Davis seems to have appreciated the significance of the election of 1860, and to have felt assured that if Mr. Lincoln was elected secession was the only remedy,” wrote The Washington Post upon release of Davis’ 1881 book The Rise and Fall of The Confederate Government.
The War Between the States began in April 1861 with the shelling of Fort Sumter. Alexandrians initially were reluctant to separate from the Union. However the mood changed when President Lincoln assembled 75,000 troops to respond to the Sumter rebellion. Virginia seceded as of May 24, 1861 and the War ended with General Lee’s surrender in 1865.
Reconstruction was difficult. President Andrew Johnson, a southerner and Unionist Democrat, failed to win political support. In 1870 Negroes were granted voting rights. The economic downturn combined with the emotion of Robert E. Lee’s 1870 death resulted in a surge of southern sentiment.
In April 1885, Edgar Warfield and the R.E. Lee Camp asked Alexandrians to construct a monument on behalf of Confederate veterans. In 1888 the Alexandria City Council approved the project, permitting placement of the Statue – Appomatox – at the intersection of Prince and Washington Streets. The Statue stands where local soldiers, mostly between the ages of 19 and 26, assembled prior to evacuation.
“Alexandria’s fair daughters found a labor of love in their efforts to raise funds for the Confederate monument,” noted The Washington Post in 1888.
The Statue was dedicated on May 24, 1889 [Alexandria’s Confederate Memorial Day]. Warfield invited Jefferson Davis to attend but he declined: “I regret that it will not be practicable for me to…meet the survivors of those who so nobly sacrificed all minor consideration to the purpose of preserving for themselves and their posterity the rights their revolutionary fathers secured and left to them for inheritance forever.”
In 1890 Virginia declared Lee’s January birthday a holiday. The State also confirmed the Confederate Statue’s permanence: “Whereas it is the desire of the said Robert E. Lee Camp of Confederate Veterans and also the citizens and inhabitants of said City of Alexandria that such monument shall remain in its present position as a perpetual and lasting testimonial…the permission so given by the said City Council of Alexandria for its erection shall not be repealed, revoked, altered, modified or changed by any future Council or other municipal power or authority.” In 1979 black City Council member Nelson Greene, Sr. argued the Statue’s removal.
The Confederate Veterans Building and Museum originally was the home of Rev. James Johnston, a rector at St. Paul’s Church. The Johnstons, southern sympathizers, abandoned the property when the Union secured the city in 1861. The house became the Union’s Prince Street Hospital.
The three-story building, constructed in 1852, is an example of Greek revival architecture. After the veterans took possession in 1903 Edgar Warfield, then R.E. Lee Camp historian, suggested a museum “to house the Camp relics.” Artifacts include the Camp’s UCV flag, Edgar Warfield’s Confederate jacket, War photos, General Lee’s camp chair, and the Alexandria Riflemen’s banner. The Alexandria Riflemen were among those ordered to join Lee in Harper’s Ferry.
Regardless of sectional preference, the second-floor R.E. Lee Camp Museum is worth the visit. Alexandria may be an urban enclave now, but it was a southern city then. The United Daughters of the Confederacy are dedicated to the Conflict, the Camp veterans, and the Museum.
For information regarding Tour tickets visit the Alexandria Convention & Visitors Center, 221 King Street, or www.VAGardenweek.org.
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