The reproduction Civil War-era flag flown on the Confederate side of gunfire in the 1860s has been pulled from the shelves of the gift shops at the Chickamauga Battlefield and Point Park.
Both military park sites were among those told this week by the National Park Service to remove the symbol of the rebellious, slave-holding South of the 19th century.
"Our cooperating association, Eastern National, voluntarily pulled the Confederate flag. That is all that has been pulled," Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park spokeswoman Kim Coons said Thursday.
Coons said Confederate flags in the park gift shops near Chattanooga are the smaller, hand-held variety. Items like maps, soldier hats, videos, books and other items the gift shops sell in a historical context are still for sale.
Phones have been busy at the visitor's center, Coons said. People asked questions about what was removed, and others complained that nothing should be removed because of the Confederate symbol.
The two Chattanooga-area parks are joined by others at Gettysburg, Pa., Vicksburg, Miss., Kennesaw, Ga., and Stones River in Murfreesboro, "every one that's Civil War-related," Coons said.
Staff file Photo by Dan HenryLance Aguirre from Denver, Colo., peruses Civil War-themed books in the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitors Center. The park announced Confederate flag merchandise will no longer be sold at the store."We are an educational outlet and we want to tell the stories of what occurred here from both perspectives, including the causes of the war as well," Coons said.
"Our job is to preserve and protect this history that occurred here. Reunification occurred here, as well, for both sides," Coons said, noting that Civil War veterans from both sides in the late 1800s worked together to place the monuments in their correct locations. The park opened in 1890.
Nonprofit Eastern National operates the gift shops at the battlefield sites near Chattanooga and others including Fort Sumter National Monument near Charleston, S.C., where the controversy sparked in the wake of a church shooting last week that claimed the lives of nine black parishioners at the Emanuel AME Church.
"With this particular flag, the connotation is that because it represents the Confederacy that fought on the side of succession and slavery it can be viewed as a racist symbol," National Park Service spokeswoman Kathy Kupper told CNN on Wednesday.
The South Carolina park gift shop began pulling flag items from shelves on Monday. Eastern National is removing the flag items from its stores in 159 other national parks, and the park service is asking its other vendors to follow Eastern National's lead, Kupper told CNN.
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com, twitter.com/BenBenton, www.facebook.com/ben.benton1 or 423-757-6569.