Ailing Confederate museum

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In 1891, Confederate veterans of Louisiana founded Memorial Hall, also known as Confederate Memorial Hall, as a meeting place. Later it became a repository for memorabilia and artifacts from the War for Southern Independence.

On Camp Street near historic Lee Circle in New Orleans, Confederate Memorial Hall is situated in an area now called the Warehouse District or the Museum District, approximately nine blocks south of the French Quarter and central business district.

Confederate Memorial Hall is a precious shrine of Confederate history, virtually unchanged since its construction more than 115 years ago. The Romanesque masonry exterior invites visitors to step into the past. Once inside, they cross heart-pine floors that creak under each footstep.

At eye level are paneled walls, and overhead rise the exposed beams of a cathedral ceiling, all in cypress from the bayous of Louisiana. The soft bronze tones of the understated interior lighting treat visitors to an authentic 19th-century atmosphere.

Unlike most museums, the edifice is as much an artifact as the relics it houses. On May 27 and 28, 1893, approximately 60,000 mourners filed through Memorial Hall to view the body of Jefferson Davis, lying in state before being transported to Richmond for permanent burial at Hollywood Cemetery. Throughout the early decades of its existence, Confederate Memorial Hall was the gathering place for several annual reunions of the United Confederate Veterans.

Confederate Memorial Hall Museum owns the second-largest collection of Civil War memorabilia in the United States, including more than 5,000 artifacts housed on site and nearly 90,000 pages of documents archived at Tulane University, on permanent loan.

Historic items include more than 125 authentic Confederate battle flags, including that of Wheat's Battalion "Louisiana Tigers," stained with the blood of its commander, Maj. Roberdeau Wheat, killed at the Battle of Gaines' Mill in Virginia.

Also on display are the uniform frock coats of Gens. P.G.T. Beauregard, Braxton Bragg, Franklin Gardner, Daniel Adams, Joseph Davis and Albert Blanchard as well as uniforms, weaponry and personal possessions of the common soldier.

Perhaps most precious of the priceless artifacts is one of the three original Confederate battle flags hand-sewn by the Carey sisters of Baltimore after the Battle of First Manassas at the direction of the flag's designer, Beauregard.

The first century of Confederate Memorial Hall's existence was successful and, in general, secure, but the early 21st century brought unprecedented challenges to the museum and its trustees.