--- description: Photographer Mark Peterson documents the dedication ceremony at the site of the National Confederate Museum, an upcoming and controversial museum dedicated to the Confederacy title: Inside the Dedication of the National Confederate Museum image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt48c65bb5179fafda/698935e4bc6cfc068a3e67ff/confederate-museum-dedication-photos-columbia-tennessee-006.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- # Still Fighting: Inside the Dedication of the National Confederate Museum Jul 21, 2018 3:45 PM CUT  The General Executive Council of the Sons of Confederate Veterans made the commitment in October of 2008 to start the process to erect a new building that will have two purposes. One of the uses of this new building will be to give us office space and return Elm Springs to its original grandeur. However the main function is to house The Confederate Museum. We are planning a museum that will tell the truth about what motivated the Southern people to struggle for many years to form a new nation. At the SCV Reunion in July of 2009 the GEC set up a building fund for this purpose. One of the goals is to provide an accurate portrayal of the common Confederate soldier, something that is currently absent in most museums and in the media. The General Executive Council of the Sons of Confederate Veterans made the commitment in October of 2008 to start the process to erect a new building that will have two purposes. One of the uses of this new building will be to give us office space and return Elm Springs to its original grandeur. However the main function is to house The Confederate Museum. We are planning a museum that will tell the truth about what motivated the Southern people to struggle for many years to form a new nation. At the SCV Reunion in July of 2009 the GEC set up a building fund for this purpose. One of the goals is to provide an accurate portrayal of the common Confederate soldier, something that is currently absent in most museums and in the media.Mark Peterson—Redux for TIME by [Gabby Raymond](/author/gabby-raymond/) ## Gabby Raymond Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 21, 2018 3:45 PM CUT 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](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/controversial-museum-tries-revive-myth-confederacys-lost-cause-180960820/ "undefined") 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](http://www.columbiadailyherald.com/news/20161015/groundbreaking-lays-path-for-confederate-museum "undefined") 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. Mark Peterson—Redux for TIME  A race car sponsored by the Sons of Confederate Veterans sits outside the hotel hosting the national convention. Mark Peterson—Redux for TIME  Shoes of attendees at the museum's dedication. Mark Peterson—Redux for TIME  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. Mark Peterson—Redux for TIME  Reenactors at the museum's dedication. Mark Peterson—Redux for TIME  Vice commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Paul Gramling, attends the dedication. Mark Peterson—Redux for TIME  Reenactors of Confederate soldiers at the dedication. Mark Peterson—Redux for TIME  Former SCV commander Charles McMichael, of Shreveport, La., helped start the museum back when he was commander. Mark Peterson—Redux for TIME  The Knibb’s battery, a reenactment organization from Richmond, Va., prepare a canon for the dedication. Mark Peterson—Redux for TIME  Author Barbara Marthal, whose husband is a member of the SCV, in the vendor area of the SCV national convention. Mark Peterson—Redux for TIME  A reenactor at the Elm Springs house, which serves as the Sons of Confederate Veterans General Headquarters, in Columbia, Tenn. Mark Peterson—Redux for TIME  Reenactors at the museum's dedication. Mark Peterson—Redux for TIME  Attendees at the dedication. 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