Creating Confederate Identity – The Museum of the Confederacy Part 3 of 4

Further the MOC sells objects identified with Confederate leaders. In addition to the activities honoring Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis mentioned in the previous installments of this article, the MOC also promotes Confederate leaders as heroes through its Haversack store.� From 2006 to 2011, through the MOC Magazine, the Haversack has offered an array of items identified with Confederate leaders. The Winter/Spring 2007 issue alone offered Robert E. Lee pictures, caps, mugs, pocket watches, key chains, commemorative coins, etched crystals, shadow boxes of both Lee and �Stonewall� Jackson U.S. Postage stamps, resin busts of Lee and Jackson, Lee�s picture inside boxes for a jackknives and figurines of Lee on a horse (both empty-handed and holding the Confederate battle flag) and Lee with another soldier carrying a Confederate battle flag. The same issue also offered �Stonewall� Jackson knives, and pocket watches. [46] Other items offered in the last five years include coasters with Jackson, Lee, Jefferson Davis and his wife, Varina, and others; [47] Robert E. Lee blankets; a pewter sets of Jefferson and Varina Davis, and one of their children; Confederate general playing cards; Jackson, Lee and Mosby lapel pins; [48] Lee Christmas ornaments and keepsake boxes; [49] Confederate candles with portraits of Jackson, Lee, and �Mrs. Jackson;; a Jefferson Davis bust; [50] � �Defenders of Southern Pride� folding knife sets with Lee, Jackson, Longstreet, J.E.B. Stuart, or Nathan Bedford Forrest on the cover of the box; �Confederate candy apple� Jefferson Davis candle; [51] Lee paper weights; Lee pen and pencil holders; magnets with Lee, Jackson, and other Confederate generals; [52] Confederate general James Longstreet, Confederate general A.P. Hill, and Colonel John Singleton Mosby figurines; �Lee Laser-Etched Crystal Cube,� [53] �Last Meeting of Lee and Jackson� Christmas ornament; commemorative coins of Davis, Lee, Jackson and Stuart; Confederate shot glasses of Lee, Jackson, Stuart, Longstreet, Pickett, and Johnson; [54] Lee Belt plate, available in in brass but also gold-plated with a custom box for $500.00; and Carte De Visite Magnets for Jackson, Lee, Davis, Varina Davis, and Lee and Jackson together. [55]

Any souvenir, and all these various knick-knacks, functions as a �mnemonic device… the personal repository of a special memory.� [57] The purchase of flags, seals, and other items of Confederate national identity allows individuals to make a conscious decision to accrete to themselves objects of Confederate identity. Together they enable an individual to display an identification with the Confederacy to others. In addition, buying these items from the MOC, an institution that represents itself as a reliquary of the Confederacy, gives them a special status. They are more �authentic,� more �sacred,� more strongly representative of Confederate national identity, than flags or other objects purchased from commercial vendors. The MOC builds Confederate national identity by selling it to consumers.