THE SOUTH: Rebel Yell

It was just a little old harmless gathering—until the professor gave the rebel yell. A few dozen United Daughters of the Confederacy, Sons of Confederate Veterans, Children of the Confederacy and Mississippi's Representative John Rankin had assembled in the National Capitol's high-domed Statuary Hall to commemorate the 139th birthday of the first and only president of the Confederate States of America. With routine reverence, the ladies placed a wreath before the eight-foot bronze statue of Jefferson Davis (which stared gloomily north). Then they sat back to listen to a eulogy by...