Short answers, pulled from the story.
The American Civil War Centennial ran from 1957 to 1965. Commemoration activities began in 1957, four years before the 100th anniversary of the war's first battle, and concluded in 1965 with the 100th anniversary of the surrender at Appomattox.
Ulysses S. Grant III served as the Commission's first chairman. Karl Betts was its first executive director, and Emory University Professor Bell Wiley was a key member who advocated for preserving historic documents, letters, and newspapers.
South Carolina raised a modified version of the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia on the State House grounds in April 1961 as part of its centennial commemoration of the reduction of Fort Sumter. Eleven months later, state lawmakers passed a law making the flag's presence permanent over the capitol. It remained there until 2015, when it was removed following the Charleston church shooting.
Pea Ridge National Military Park in Arkansas and Wilson's Creek National Battlefield in Missouri were added to the National Park Service during the Centennial years. Perryville Battlefield State Historic Site in Kentucky also traces its origins to this period.
The Centennial created the modern infrastructure of Civil War reenactment. For the first time on a large scale, Americans, especially white Southerners, were recruited or volunteered into historical reenactment groups that performed pageants and re-created battles, field maneuvers, and encampments.
Alec Wilder composed Names from the War in 1961, written specifically for the centennial. The piece was based on a long poem of the same name by Civil War historian Bruce Catton.