More About the
Confederate Memorial Hall

Home of the Confederate Embassy, PO Box 6010, Washington, D.C. 20005 Telephone: 202-483-5700


The Confederate Embassy is the only shrine to the Confederacy in the nation's capital. Located just eight blocks from the White House, it stands among a group of Victorian mansions that are listed as a Category 1 landmark on the National Register of Historic Places.

After the War Between the States, the mansion was purchased by the Confederate Memorial Association, a group of Southern ladies and gentlemen dedicated to the preservation of Southern culture as a part of our American heritage.

Veterans outside Hall, circa 1907

Originally, the mansion was used as a home for Confederate veterans. But as death thinned the ranks of the veterans, Association members turned to other philanthropies. Many donations were made to Walter Reed Hospital, the Salvation Army and the American National Red Cross. And during World War I, two French orphans were adopted.

More views of the Hall:

In 1919, the mansion was converted into a convention hall, library, and museum. Among the more significant acquisitions are oil portraits:

We also have an original print of the Burial of Latane, and a marble bust of General Robert E. Lee by Herbert Barbee, who sculpted much of the Confederate statuary in the cities and towns throughout the South. The portraits and bust are catalogued in the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution.

Other items of interest include a Jefferson Davis sideboard, and two period chairs which were once the property of General Beauregard. The museum exhibits rare prints and books, numerous battle flags, and the First National Flag of the Confederacy that flew during the siege of Atlanta.

The Confederate Memorial Hall Library contains over 1,000 books and is the only Confederate library open to the public in Washington, D.C. It contains such rare volumes as the original Congressional Globes--the predecessor of the Congressional Record--and a complete set of the Southern Historical Society Papers. The Sword of Lee is the organization that acquires books for the library by sponsoring an annual reception at Confederate Memorial Hall on or around Robert E. Lee's January 19th birthday. The price of admission for members and guests is the donation of a book to the library.


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This page last revised: January 12, 1997