Since 2006, one of the country’s largest public displays of Civil War antiques found its apartment in a faux southwestern castle in , White Settlement, a few hundred foot off , Loop 820.
Collin Jefferson , stood by the present store of the , Texas Civil War Museum , later Thursday night, as the first of its final guests began to trickle in. The business had mostly been scraped clear, save for some T-shirts and pots of damaged, 0.58 ability shot shells selling for$ 0.92 a bit.
” The temperament has been kind of sad”, Jefferson said. The 31-year-old , Plano , local sported the blue jacket and helmet of a Union soldier, rifle and bottle slung over his make. He has participated in Civil War recreations since he was 14 years old, and he started volunteering at the museum as a docent about five years ago.
” We’ve gotten a lot of people to see the variety and give a notion to the history”, he said. ” I think it’s pretty little fulfilled the goal”.
The animal job of , Fort Worth , industrialist and part-time past buff , Ray Richey , announced its shutdown in late August. After almost 20 years of operation, the family was forced to shut down the exhibit due to financial and interpersonal pressures.
” When he went into a home three years ago, we had enough money in the account to keep it from closing for about three more years” , , Marcus Richey, Richey’s son and the museum’s director, said. ” It was my husband’s love and joy. He just wanted to share it with somebody”.
Richey senior amassed thousands of Civil War artifacts, some of which are now worth upwards of$ 10 million, for the better part of forty years. His family, Judy, assembled her own collection of Victorian gowns for a nearby auditorium.
The exhibition often thrived during its life, typically attracting around 20 guests on any given moment, by Marcus ‘ measure. His father generally covered the museum’s costs out of pocket, with much assumption of turning a profit. In recent months, the announcement of its stoppage sparked a surge in visitors.
Richey wanted to balance the views of the Confederate and Union during the war.
” The landlord had so many objects that he set up each one of these situations to picture graphic one another”, the gallery’s sales chairman,  , Dennis Partrich, explained. He motioned toward three consecutive areas of glass displays of rifles, knives, hats, flags, tooth saws and cannons, the north-facing walls keeping Union equipment and its opposite cover Confederate clothes.
” I think it gives a really great contrast of both factors, at least just in the military objects”, Jefferson said.
Controversy
Social currents and the attention of scholars challenged the monument’s bid for neutrality.
The museum’s set makes second to no notice of slavery. The Star-Telegram documented at least two during its attend Thursday — both in a , little film , celebrating the courage and grittiness of Texan soldiers in the” War Between the States” telecast on duplicate in the museum’s hall.
A clip explaining how early , Texas  , “became more southwestern by the day” showed a grainy picture of a stucco shop where light customers bought and sold Black slaves, not saying the word openly. One of the final scenes of the movie briefly described the emancipation of Texans who had been enslaved at the conclusion of the war.
Critics , over the years , have struggled to understand how an , institution ostensibly committed , to educating “future generations about the character and courage that all Americans demonstrated in helping to build this nation” could skirt around the , conflict’s principal cause , — and the suffering of its victims.
” It was the major part of the Civil War” , , Marcus Richey , told the , Star-Telegram.
His father acknowledged as much, he added, but refrained from engaging with the topic.
” He’s like,’ I did n’t want to spend money on such a sad part of history”, Richey explained of his dad’s thinking when curating exhibits.” ‘ I just want to stay away from all of that and just say: Here’s what they had, here’s what they fought with, here’s their uniforms, and that’s it.'”
The museum had also cultivated close ties with the , United Daughters of the Confederacy, whose , Texas  , division manages displays of Confederate memorabilia in their own corner of the building. The museum’s former executive director,  , Cynthia Harriman, was a , life-long member , of the group.
Founded by the female relatives of Confederate fighters three decades after their surrender, the , United Daughters of the Confederacy , has the , stated goal , of “honoring the memory of its Confederate ancestors” and supporting its descendants.
Historians have long criticized the organization for selling distorted narratives of the war in classrooms and public forums, defending the southern cause, and sanitizing the white supremacy that fueled it.
The organization’s main campaign involved building monuments honoring Confederate officers and regiments. In 2012, UDC patrons placed a granite obelisk in honor of” Our Heroes in Gray” on the museum’s front patio.
Numerous local governments were forced to tear them down as a result of national debates regarding the purpose and impact of these structures.  , Dallas , hauled off an imposing metal effigy of Confederate general , Robert E. Lee , from a park bearing his name in , Sept. 2017. The city considered shipping it to , Richey’s museum , before electing to sell it to a private buyer.
The Future of History
The United Daughters of the Confederacy , will reclaim their portion of the collection once the museum shuts its doors. Richey’s paraphernalia is being appraised and sold off by a consignor in , Pennsylvania.
Marcus, a youth pastor, plans to take up his father’s oil-and-gas business once the museum operation winds down.
If the pressures of work and fatherhood allow, Jefferson, an aerospace engineer by day, wants to continue playing in the reenactment scene and perhaps even launch a live history exhibit.
What kind of gap in Civil War discourse the museum will leave behind, and what, if anything, might fill it, neither could say for certain.
Because a lot of the Civil War is not fully covered in school, Richey said,” a lot of people do n’t really know much about it.” ” It’s such a touchy subject, I think people shy away from it”.
Social studies curricula in , Texas  , public schools only began listing , slavery as a central facet , of the Civil War in the 2019-2020 school year. Clarifying the historical record has taken on a new urgency as the country’s past crises have become co-opted and distorted for political purposes.
” Sometimes people come in with absolutely no understanding ( of the Civil War ), no basis whatsoever”, Jefferson said. Because I believe it is being seriously misinterpreted in some way or another, that makes it all the more significant.
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