History
CONFEDERATE MEMORIAL HALL:
The Battle Abbey of the South
Confederate Memorial Hall opened its doors in New Orleans on January 8, 1891, and since that time has been celebrating over 100 years of Southern heritage and tradition. The museum is the oldest in Louisiana and houses one of the largest collections of Confederate memorabilia in the United States.
The museum’s origin dates back to the troubled days of the Reconstruction era. Early in 1869 Confederate veterans realized a sense of duty and organized the Southern Historical Society, an association of “benevolent” Confederate veteran associations. Its president was the Reverend M. Palmer, the Presbyterian minister who had previously helped sway New Orleanians into secession. Confederate Generals Bragg, Beauregard, Buckner, and Maury were among its founders. The Society had only a brief existence and soon languished due to its suppression by local Federal authorities, including General Philip Sheridan. It moved its headquarters to Richmond, Virginia leaving the numerous Confederate associations of New Orleans to exist independently.
During the next 15 years efforts in collecting relics and historical documents were sporadic, but 1887 was a year of united determination. A conference of the different Confederate associations of New Orleans met again to “take steps towards securing a place where the historical records of the different veteran associations and everything else relating the history of the State of Louisiana could be securely placed, and where they could be carefully preserved.” Colonel William Miller Owen of the Washington Artillery became a committee of one and visited several possible locations for the contemplated joint depository. These included Tulane University, the Washington Artillery Hall, and the Howard Library. Mr. Frank Howard, a wealthy philanthropist in the city, responded in earnest. Although in the midst of constructing a memorial library to his father, Charles T. Howard, near Lee Circle, Frank Howard offered the use of one of the alcoves in the library for the Confederate repository.
On March 28, 1889, he convened a Board of Governors of 25 members – five taken from each of the local Confederate associations that had brought about the request and five taken from the Board of Directors of the Howard Memorial Library. Their discussions resulted in the organization of a new historical association and a repository of Confederate relics and records of the war. Frank Howard not only offered a section of the Howard Library for the new association to meet and collect artifacts, but also agreed to erect at his own expense a suitable and handsome building as an annex to the library if the collection should continue to grow.
Mr. Howard and Colonel Owen soon drafted a charter under the title the Louisiana Historical Association, which was officially formed on April 11, 1889. It consisted of members from the following Confederate veteran associations: the Army of Tennessee, the Army of Northern Virginia, the Washington Artillery, and the Association of Confederate States Cavalry.
Though too young to take part in the War Between the States, Frank Howard was inspired by a patriotic love of the South and pride in his father who had served in Company I of the Crescent Rifles. As president of the newly formed LHA he worked closely with Colonel Owen in the construction of a new “annex” building next to the Howard Library.
Funding for the Howard Library and its annex, the future Confederate Memorial Hall, was made possible through the fortunes amassed by Frank’s father, C.T. Howard, as well as revenues derived from the corrupt Louisiana State Lottery Company formed in 1868. Under C. T. Howard the lottery attempted to gain respectability by means of generous charitable contributions, (including a $40,000 annuity to Charity Hospital in New Orleans). The use of two well-known heroes of the Confederacy, General P.G.T Beauregard of Louisiana and General Jubal A. Early of Virginia, as supervisors of the lottery drawings, also helped.
The Howard Library was one of the master productions of the famous architect H.H. Richardson. Richardson, a native Louisianan who lived nearby on Julia Street, was the nation’s leading architect in 1885. He had developed an architectural style that bears his name, the Richardsonian Romanesque, but died in 1886 prior to the conception of Memorial Hall. Therefore, Memorial Hall’s design was given to the local architectural firm of Sully & Toledano, and two years later its final construction would complement that of the Howard Library.
Memorial Hall was formally dedicated on January 8, 1891 and turned over to the Louisiana Historical Association by Frank Howard. The Daily Picayune described the occasion, “Today the repository of the archives and relics of the Louisiana Historical Association will be formally dedicated… ‘The Howard Annex’ adjoins the Howard Library and faces Camp Street while the rear windows afford a pretty view of Lee Circle. Brown stone steps lead gently upward to the entrance, a massive door constructed of southern cypress, finished in oil, and suspended with antique hinges. Within is a wonderland. There is not another building in this city like it in interior finish and contents. The hall is open and continuous, with several heavy trusses transversing the width of the building. The walls are paneled with cypress without paint and the rich yellow oil showing the beauty of the wood. Above are the beams giving an impression of strength and fixity, and above them a lengthwise ridge with glass windows on both sides, affording a plentiful flow of light.” One distinguished veteran present at the dedication stated, “Here the old soldiers will meet and, in social intercourse, tell their stories of personal adventure and fight their battles o’er again!”
The charter of the LHA drafted by Mr. Howard and Colonel Owen stated that the collection “shall never be broken up by sale, or removed from New Orleans, except by the unanimous vote of the Board of Governors and by the consent of the donors.” With such guarantees historical relics started to pour into the great hall. It is impossible to enumerate the many objects of historical interest which were donated, but some of those worthy of mention included: the flag of the Tiger Rifles carried at the battle of First Manassas and used as a pillar for Major Cheatham Wheat with whose blood it is stained; Jefferson Davis’ cradle, saddle, and personal belongings; General Braxton Bragg’s uniform, sword, and saddle; the famous piano played in the trenches outside of Jackson, Mississippi by the Washington Artillery; General P.G.T. Beauregard’s uniform and accoutrements; cannon and artifacts from the Washington Artillery; the sword of Albert Sidney Johnston; 51 Confederate battle flags; 58 Confederate swords and sabers; 49 uniforms and hats; and numerous personal relics from the common Confederate soldier. The hall was a great temple of Confederate worship in the city and was used by all the Confederate associations and their descendants including the Daughters of the Confederacy and camps of the United Sons of Confederate Veterans.
Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, died in New Orleans in 1889.His body was interred at Metairie Cemetery near New Orleans for four years until it was moved to its present location at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. Prior to burial Davis laid in state at Memorial Hall for one and a half days where more than 60,000 people came to pay their respects.
As the collection continued to grow Frank Howard purchased additional property and enlarged the hall on January 18, 1897 with the addition of the Jefferson Davis Annex and an elaborate Romanesque-revival entrance porch and turret designed by the architectural firm of Sully, Burton and Stone. This addition greatly improved the exterior appearance of the otherwise austere façade and gave the hall its current look.
The hall served as the official state museum until June 30, 1908 when the City Council of New Orleans passed an ordinance placing the historic Cabildo and Presbytere under the supervision of the Board of Curators of the newly formed Louisiana State Museum. On January 1, 1911 the state museum entered upon an era of expansion and development separate from Memorial Hall. That same year Frank Howard passed away, bequeathing to the LHA use of the great hall in perpetuity. He also donated funds for “repairs and improvements to the Confederate Memorial Hall.” By the 1930’s the Howard Library continued to expand across the 18 feet of open ground between the two buildings which had previously given the annex its “fireproof “ design.
As a repository of artifacts and documents on Louisiana history, especially the War Between the States, Confederate Memorial Hall stands as a reminder of days gone by, as a tribute to Southern men of character, and as a temple enshrining their epic struggle. It also serves as a warning to their descendents about the devastating effects that a Civil War can bring home. Colonel J. A. Chalaron of the Washington Artillery may have said it best in his speech during the dedication ceremony at Memorial Hall in 1891; “to these sacred and inspiring objects we should extend the fullest measure of our love and protection. We should guard them with the tender care with which a mother watches over her child. We must see that they are transmitted to our descendents as object lessons which will inspire them with the reverence of the past and incite them with a determination to emulate the courage, patriotism, and devotion to the duty of those who have gone before.”
Today, Memorial Hall is known as Louisiana’s Civil War Museum at Confederate Memorial Hall and continues to stand as a monument to its founders and as a depository of their cherished stories and memorabilia. The museum is now owned and operated by a newly formed nonprofit organization, Memorial Hall, Inc. The LHA, its original owner, began operating as a literary organization in the late 1950s, and in 1998 decided it no longer wanted the responsibility of owning the museum. The Memorial Hall Foundation and Memorial Hall, Inc., both nonprofit organizations created to preserve this wonderful facility and its contents, trust in the wisdom and generosity of other historians, enthusiasts, and descendants of Civil War veterans to see the need in preserving such a historical legacy to the City of New Orleans, the State of Louisiana and the nation.