Susan Whitney/The Gazette (From left) Michael Barnhouse, 11, and his sister Stephanie, 13, of Frederick and Donald Beck of Rockville watch Bryan Green of Columbia, a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, demonstrate how soldiers loaded their rifles during a Heritage Days demonstration at the Confederate Chapel in Beallsville on Sunday.

The pine-paneled chapel, where portraits of Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson look down from either side of a stained glass window and the archway proclaims "Lest We Forget," was constructed in 1915 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. More than 30 local Confederate veterans are buried in the cemetery.

Frederick resident Linda Atwell first visited the site with her husband, a member of Sons of Confederate Veterans, several years ago. "I had never seen anything like that," she said. "... I thought the chapel was beautiful, [but] I was upset that it was leaking so bad."

Atwell, who joined the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1999, became involved with repairing the chapel and was eventually offered the records of the E.V. White Chapter of the group, which met regularly in the building until the 1950s.

Atwell now hopes to recruit descendants of the Confederacy to reactivate the chapter. "There's too many people downcounty who don't want to go as far as Frederick or even to D.C.," Atwell said. "... We need [a chapter] in Montgomery County."

The Beallsville chapter was named for Col. Elijah Viers White, who was born near Poolesville, commanded a Virginia Cavalry battalion, and later owned White's Ferry. The scrapbooks and records of the United Daughters of the Confederacy group ­ recorded in flowing, rounded script ­ have sat in a bookcase in the chapel for the half-century since its last meeting.

To restart the chapter, there must be seven new members to join the rolls, which Atwell believes she has. Five current members also plan to shift their membership.

In fact Atwell, Patricia Cannon of Clear Spring and Diana Wright of Wheaton filled out their transfer forms Sunday as they greeted a trickle of visitors participating in Montgomery County Heritage Days and others attracted by the row of Confederate battle flags.

Donna Bush of Beallsville, accompanied by her 3-year-old daughter Hannah, said she had lived in the area for several years but didn't know what was up the hill where the chapel and cemetery sit until she followed the colorful flags that afternoon.

"[The community] is so small but you're never out this way," Bush said. "You're Poolesville, Darnestown and back that way. ... We live so close I wanted to find out more."

Bush collected pages and pamphlets on the area's history and the Confederacy group and introduced a shy Hannah to the costumed re-enactors. "I'm going to show all this to my husband and see if we can come up with a name [for our house]," she said, shaking her handful of paper. "He was thinking maybe 'Chapel View' or something."

The chapel is left unlocked for visitors but is otherwise unused, said Howard Bodmer, secretary of the Monocacy Cemetery Company of Beallsville. Bodmer said he'd like to see the building made available for funeral services but doubts that could happen. The chapel, with wood slats softly glowing from floor to ceiling, has electricity but no water service.

Siblings Stephanie Denman-Barnhouse and Michael Barnhouse of Frederick had come south Sunday to explore the area where their aunt recently became resident caretaker. They also enjoyed the exhibits.

"It's really cool," said Denman-Barnhouse, 13. "There's just a lot of history and when you walk through the graveyard you see all the dates in the 1800s and wonder what it was like then."

"I like the gun that has the knife in front," her brother, 11, added.

Wright, who rejected wool stockings Sunday but was otherwise decked out in antebellum fashion, joined United Daughters of the Confederacy about a year ago. She said wanting to learn about her Confederate ancestors should be seen as no different than an Italian family wanting to preserve their heritage.

"I think these days people see people who value their southern heritage as prejudiced or evil," Wright said. "Like last year we were in Rockville for [the reenactment of the arrival of] J.E.B. Stuart and a lady said, 'We have a Sons of Confederate Veterans in Maryland?' like it was the Ku Klux Klan. I want people to know the people I come from were good people."

"I tell you one thing ­ I'm definitely not ashamed of it," Atwell said of her activity in the group. She said her brother, a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, is considering joining a similar Union group for which her family also qualifies.

"You honor everybody," Atwell said. "We weren't there so we don't know, but when you think about it it just makes you shiver ­ you know, the heat and you see the [re-enactor] girls in their dresses."

Atwell herself doesn't dress in Civil War garb. She devotes her time to the genealogy of her family and the organization's candidates. "With each generation it's harder to find the paperwork," she said.

Potential applicants must be at least 16 years old and able to prove they have a lineal or collateral ancestor who served in the military or civil service of the Confederate States of America. The organization accepts only certain kinds of records as proof ­ family lore is not enough.

Bryan Green of Columbia, decked out in gray wool in his role as a Confederate naval man, said many people don't realize how involved Maryland was with the southern cause. "When I was growing up people knew Maryland was a southern state but now with political correctness it's known as a border state or a northern state," he said. "... We have a tough job because we're trying to educate people."

According to a book by local historian Susan Soderberg, the Confederate Chapel was built on the site of an Anglican Chapel-of-Ease that dated to the early 1700s. The original chapel was destroyed during the Civil War when a nearby Union encampment used the pews and siding for firewood and stabled its horses under the eaves.

As she toured the site Sunday, Carol Reitz of Rockville said she was learning things she hadn't when she lived just two miles away in Poolesville. "As a [native] D.C.-ite I thought Maryland was north," she said. "... It's nice to know where we came from and why we're so different."

Those interested in the effort to have a United Daughters of the Confederacy chapter in Montgomery County should contact Linda Atwell at 301-831-9078 or bill.lin.atwell@mindspring.com. Include "E.V. White" in the subject line. For information, go to www.hqudc.org.