The history of the American South has been influenced by the identity of Southerners in gendered, regional and racial terms. Their identity created a spiritual connection to the antebellum past that can be best described as "civil religion." Organizations like the United Daughters of the Confederacy worked to spread civil religion. Celebration rituals like Confederate Memorial Day were its visual incarnations.

Previous literature has addressed the prevalence of antebellum and Confederate nostalgia, yet has not done so in terms of the civil religious model. The role of identity as the primary motivating factor has received little mention. While the UDC and Confederate Memorial Day have been mentioned in a myriad of works, they have not received attention in the form of a case study to highlight the role of identity in Southern life.