This article reports on the results of an exploratory qualitative study of the collective memories of Secession held by a diverse group of university students (n = 54) at a large southern research institution. Participants completed a survey that asked them to produce a narrative of Secession as well as to rank a selection of heroes and provide an explanation for their ranking. We found that the majority of responses contained elements from different, and even opposing, collective-memory traditions, including the Lost Cause and freedom-quest narratives of the Civil War. The article explores the responses using a theoretical framework based on the socio-cultural theories of language and narrative developed by Bakhtin and Wertsch in light of historical work done on collective memory of the Civil War.