Annual Civil War show highlights history, displays unique story

Tim Prince, left, from College Hill Arsenal in Nashville, describes guns he has for sale while Carlus (CQ) Gann listens at the 21st annual Chickamauga Civil War Show, a two-day event  at the Northwest Georgia Trade Center that concluded on Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016, in Dalton, Ga.
Tim Prince, left, from College Hill Arsenal in Nashville, describes guns he has for sale while Carlus (CQ) Gann listens at the 21st annual Chickamauga Civil War Show, a two-day event at the Northwest Georgia Trade Center that concluded on Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016, in Dalton, Ga.

DALTON, Ga - More than 200 vendors spread out over 472 tables packed the floor of the Northwest Georgia Trade Center this weekend, attracting 1,500 visitors to revel in the relics of the Civil War.

Visitors browsed among swords and rifles, buttons and buckles and other bits of memorabilia, along with Civil War souvenirs, toy soldiers and modern items like books and T-shirts.

But one stand featured a modern story unlike any other swapped among the throng of history enthusiasts during the two-day event.

That story belongs to Al Arnold, whose appreciation of Confederate heritage has grown in the past eight years, even amid a cultural shift that has brought modern displays of Confederate history under national scrutiny.

Arnold, an African-American physical therapist from Madison, Miss., was told in 2008 that his great-great-grandfather, Turner Hall Jr., had served as an orderly for revered Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

In the quest to validate that information, Arnold discovered Hall had also been a slave to a more controversial figure: Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, who was a founder and the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

Arnold spent years validating and researching his ancestor's legacy and searching his own soul in wake of the discoveries.

That journey led him to write the book, "Robert E. Lee's Orderly," that was published in October. He peddled it to shoppers at the show who stood slack-jawed while hearing about Arnold's personal connection to the past.

"My point is that we're one people, united in a common heritage, and we can be one people if we understand that through the story of the cross," said Arnold, who is a Methodist. "That's how I come to reconcile my black heritage and my Confederate heritage."

Turner lived to be more than 100 years old and was honored as a black Confederate at a Gettysburg reunion in 1938. For all of his life, Arnold says, Turner clung to a gift Forrest gave him.

"He was a very complex man," Arnold said of Forrest. "I do believe he and my great-great-grandfather share the same heaven. He wasn't a saint, he wasn't a devil. He was a human being in a complex world created by God for God's glory."

Arnold wants his book to appeal to a wide audience, and he picked a good venue to spread the word.

Civil War junkies and collectors from around the South were in town for the show, selling and displaying Civil War-era currency, weapons and other artifacts

"This was probably one of the best shows that I remember," said Greg Ton, a Confederate currency collector from Franklin, Tenn.

Ton said he attends about 10 shows per year.

"From my standpoint, it's better to come to a Civil War show and spend eight or ten dollars, because there's more here than there is in a museum, and the people have such great knowledge."

Contact staff writer David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249.

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