John Culpepper says the day Georgia leaders began discussing breaking away from the rest of the country 150 years ago is not exactly an occasion for parades and streamers.
But Culpepper, the city manager for Chickamauga and the chairman of the Georgia Civil War Commission, said it’s also not a day to be forgotten, either.
“How do you celebrate a war where 600,000 men were killed and the South was destroyed?” he asked. “You don’t celebrate that, but you’ve got to commemorate.”
Georgia opened its secession convention 150 years ago today after a decade of growing tensions between the North and South. Delegates debated for four days but eventually voted to leave the Union, despite protests from leaders such as Alexander H. Stephens, who would become the Confederate vice president. Tennessee followed suit in June.
The Central Georgia town of Milledgeville, the state capital at the time of secession, will host a re-enactment of the events Tuesday.
Locally, Daryl Black, executive director of the Chattanooga History Center, will give a lecture on secession in Chattanooga on Thursday at the Sheraton Read House.
He said secession still sparks fierce debates across the South. Some say the Southern states seceded to preserve slavery, while others claim the Confederacy was created because of states’ rights issues.
“I think it’s issues of family. I think it’s those family remembrances,” he said. “People in Tennessee don’t want people in The New York Times telling them what this was about.”
Black said the anniversary of the secession is a good opportunity to discuss the time when the country was torn in two.
“This is a great opportunity for all Americans to take a serious look about what happened,” he said.
Culpepper agreed.
“I’ve got my opinion on what started the war, and somebody sitting up in New York has his opinion on what started the war, but this is our chance to flush it all out,” he said.