But after the violent demonstrations last weekend in Charlottesville, which left a 32-year-old woman dead, the complex intersection of race, culture and Southern identity has reached a stunning level of national visibility. This is at a time when the most prominent champions of the Confederate legacy have been far-right groups whose aims lie explicitly in white supremacism and who express little interest in battle tactics, military uniforms or the trappings of a bygone Southern culture.

The result is a dizzying churn in the often shadowy worlds of far-right and Confederate culture that has sparked a major national debate over race and identity, along with calls for a true and some say long overdue national reckoning with Southern and American history.

President Trump further inflamed tensions when he came to the defense of the “beauty” of the Confederate monuments, now under siege. But some who maintain the “heritage, not hate” position were dismayed that the far right has eclipsed them.

“They’re starving for attention, so they’re trying to create, somehow, this link to the rest of us,” said Robert Castello, who, about 140 miles north of here, runs the Dixie General Store, a roadside room filled with tables and shelves of Old South and Confederate bumper stickers, T-shirts, pocketknives and flags. “Most people who really love the South and Confederate heritage don’t approve of them or want anything to do with them,” Mr. Castello, 58, said.

Others are skeptical. Critics say there has often been a very thin line between many of those trafficking in Confederate history and purveyors of white supremacy. The Confederate battle flag, which was reborn as a powerful symbol for segregationists during the days of integration, has long been a favorite totem of the racist right and groups like the Ku Klux Klan.