A surge of patriotism after Sept. 11, 2001, dampened enthusiasm for neo-Confederate causes, ending or at least diminishing growth that occurred after the Confederate flag fight in South Carolina three years ago.

"It just took all the wind out of the sails of all of the men who want to sit around and talk about Robert E. Lee's horse," said Lake High of Edgefield, former state chairman of the League of the South, a group dedicated to self-government for the region.

Disagreements persist among neo-Confederate groups and law enforcement officials over how big they are, how much influence they have, and to what extent a patriotic backlash that followed the terrorist attacks and continued through the war in Iraq slowed their growth. Still, many within the heritage community agree that interest waned, at least briefly.

"I just think that people were in shock, and they just kind of suspended their lives for awhile," J. Michael Hill, the League's founder and president, said from the organization's new national headquarters near Florence, Ala.

Hill and other Southern heritage group leaders say membership has grown dramatically nationwide since the S.C. flag fight, especially in the Palmetto State. Law enforcement officials say the evidence available publicly suggests otherwise.

"Other than some rallies and protests and demonstrations there's been very little activity," said S.C. Law Enforcement Division Chief Robert Stewart. "Based on the limited public activities they've had, we've had no problems. I can't think of an arrest."

Stewart declined to speculate on why public activity has diminished or whether interest in such causes has truly waned. But he said attendance at public events provides the best barometer.

Up to a dozen League members have appeared at Greenville County Council meetings to protest a move to create a holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. They have argued that county employees should have the right to decide for themselves whether they want the day off.

Two weeks ago, on May 3, the Sons of Confederate Veterans held its annual Confederate Memorial Day march from Elmwood Cemetery to the S.C. State House. By the group's own estimate, the event drew 700 people -- far short of the thousands who gathered on numerous occasions while the flag still flew over the dome.

Activities by some of the more notorious groups have diminished significantly in South Carolina. For example, the Ku Klux Klan, battered by civil and criminal litigation for the last decade, has fewer than 100 members in South Carolina, Stewart said.

Most of the groups that remain pose more of a political than a physical threat.

"These aren't people who are going to go out and blow up anybody's house or burn a cross on anyone's lawn," said Mark Potok, editor of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report.

SHADES OF GRAY

In South Carolina, neo-Confederate or Southern heritage groups range in shades of gray from organizations concerned with historic preservation and battle re-enactments to groups that seek political power and promote secession. Many of the groups united during the flag fight, but their paths have diverged ever since. They include:

• The Sons of Confederate Veterans, recently embroiled in controversy over claims by some that its leaders have become too extremist and too political

• The United Daughters of the Confederacy, a women's group devoted mostly to preserving historic sites

• The Council of Conservative Citizens, regarded by some observers as one of the more extreme neo-Confederate groups

• The League of the South, formed in 1994 by a group of university professors concerned about federal infringement on states' rights and the erosion of white Southern culture

• The Southern Party, a coalition of the League of the South and others interested in separate nationhood for the region.

While its membership figures remain private, the League of the South's course since the flag controversy seems representative of other neo-Confederate groups.

Hill said the upheaval over the flag -- which was removed from the S.C. State House dome on July 1, 2000, as a similar banner was raised on the State House lawn -- sparked renewed interest in the League. He said subsequent flag controversies in Mississippi and Georgia -- both of which debated whether to keep Confederate symbols on the official state flag -- didn't hurt, either.

"In the states where we have those kinds of things happening, our membership has exploded over the last two to three years," Hill said.

Interest "slowed a little bit" after the terrorist attacks, he said, then resumed after about six months. He declined to provide membership figures, though he said estimates by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors neo-Confederate organizations, were "fairly accurate."

The law center, based in Montgomery, Ala., recently placed League membership at about 9,000 nationwide.

Potok, the Intelligence Report editor, said the League lost members after the Sept. 11 attacks, though he did not know how many. He said Hill offended some people with a news release the next day -- on Sept. 12, 2001 -- in which he called the attacks "the natural fruits of a regime committed to multiculturalism and diversity, hallmarks of empire rather than of nation."

Potok, whose organization has labeled the League a "racist hate group" over various activities and communications since its founding in 1994, said blaming U.S. government policies for the attacks did not go over well.

"We know of a number of instances of people who left, and some of them were over that quote," he said.

Hill said the League didn't lose members. "What happened was that recruitment really slowed," he said.

Hill stood by the multiculturalism quote, and said he believed lax immigration policies contributed to the attacks.

"If you have a country that is going to allow people to come in pretty much unchecked and bring all of those different cultures and religions, many of which are hostile to the culture and religion of the people who founded this country, this is pretty much what you can expect," he said.

Hill said the League should thrive during a time of patriotic fervor because its mission involves defending the nation's founding principles -- like self-government by the states.

"We hope there will be a true resurgence of patriotism, meaning we get back to some of the founding ideals of the Republic that were given to us in the first place," he said.

He denied that the League is racist or a hate group (see related article).

The events of Sept. 11 "diverted attention for awhile," said Clyde Wilson, a USC history professor and another of the League's founding members. "But you know, as far as membership growth was concerned, that was just a blip."

Wilson said League officials do not track membership closely. But he said it might be as high as 15,000 nationally and growing.

High, the former S.C. League chairman, broke with the organization more than a year ago during a feud with his successor over a Web site domain name and suspicions about the allegiances of other leaders.

High said the League routinely fudged its membership numbers while he was involved.

"The membership was never over 1,200," he said. "Now, I know that they got out and said it was 6,000 and 8,000 and 12,000."

Wilson acknowledged the League may have exaggerated its numbers early on. But he insisted that interest is surging now.

"We get new members by the week, and every time there is an incident of unfavorable publicity we get more members," he said.

Although High has no involvement with the League now, he said the Sept. 11 attacks forced a pause in activity among groups promoting Southern nationalism.

"While everybody's waving the American flag you're not going to get anywhere," he said. "You might as well take a break."

"After the patriotism wears off," he added, "then the fact that the government can tap your phone for 14 days without a court order doesn't look so hot."

He was referring to a provision in domestic security legislation under consideration by the Bush administration that would loosen legal restrictions on government surveillance powers if enacted. The provision in question would apply during wartime.

High said he used to see sport utility vehicles bearing Confederate flags but now finds the banners accompanied by a second emblem of allegiance. "I have not seen a single Confederate flag on an SUV without it also having an American flag."

THE LOCUS OF ACTIVITY

Although the din of patriotism slowed the League's growth, the law center's Potok said the group's center of gravity has shifted toward South Carolina since the flag fight.

"They've got 31 chapters there, which is far more than any other place," he said. "The kind of locus of activity used to be the Florida panhandle and up into Southern Alabama. It's now clearly in South Carolina."

The flag fight in South Carolina provided a catalyst for growth, Potok said.

"The whole sort of Southern nationalist movement really began around the South Carolina flag fight," he said. "That's what helped move the League from a sort of cultural defense group to what we're really calling an out-and-out hate group."

League members dismiss the law center as a left-wing interest group that raises money for its agenda by stirring up controversy and throwing around labels. They say it has little access to real information.

"We know they are not reputable people," said Robert Hayes, current S.C. director for the League. "Everybody seems to think that they know who is a hate group and who isn't."

Still, Hayes agreed South Carolina has become a hotbed of League activity, though he also declined to be specific. He said there are League chapters in all but eight S.C. counties, meeting at least every other month.

Hayes said the S.C. delegation to national League meetings typically outnumbered those of other states. "Usually the only state to outrepresent South Carolina was the host state," he said.

He attributed the high level of interest here to "a long history of independent thinking."

Hayes said the South never rejoined the Union and, to this day, remains "occupied" by the federal government. But he said views on whether the South should secede now are mixed within the League's membership -- though there is broad agreement that federal mandates imposed on the states should be resisted.

For example, he said, "A very large percentage of the people of South Carolina consider abortion to be murder, and yet we in South Carolina cannot stop murder of unborn babies. The people of South Carolina should have the right to determine that."

POLITICAL POWER

Consolidating political power is central to the League's mission. Hayes said at least two S.C. legislators are also League members, though he declined to name them. The League's Web site maintains a running scorecard of "patriots" and "turncoats," claiming credit for 13 S.C. election victories last November alone, including the defeat of former Gov. Jim Hodges for his role in forging the flag compromise.

Most recently, the League has been involved with the Southern Party, a regional organization founded in 1999 to push for statewide referendums on whether to remain in the United States. The League hosted a Southern Party meeting in Abbeville last month aimed at patching up differences of opinion among the leadership.

Gray Banks of Branchville, director for the Southern Party, said it has amassed 12,000 signatures on a petition seeking inclusion on statewide election ballots. Although only 10,000 signatures are legally required, Banks said the party has not submitted its list to the state Election Commission because it wants "to be on the safe side" in case some of the signatures don't survive a challenge.

Potok said the Southern Party "imploded" more than a year ago in a dispute over local control.

"It's amusing, really, because what the leadership was accused of doing was violating principles of states' rights," he said.

Banks said the party has had some difficulties but still sparks interest.

"It's at least holding steady," he said. "And we feel like once we get on the ballot we can begin reaching out to people."

Banks said the "rule of law" established in the U.S. Constitution has been eroded by the federal government on a variety of issues, from the right to bear arms to affirmative action to the free speech rights of people like restaurateur Maurice Bessinger and former Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker -- both of whom came under fire in recent years for comments about minorities.

Banks said maintaining a white majority in South Carolina is a legitimate goal, though he said it was "politically incorrect."

"Why would anyone wish to become a minority in their own country?" he said. "That would be suicide and that would be insane."

Hill said politics isn't the primary area of emphasis these days.

"Right now, we're pursuing educational and cultural issues," he said. "We're trying to get people aware of the true history of America and the true history of the South."

Potok, of the Intelligence Project, said the underlying goal is more sinister.

"Rewriting the history of the Civil War so it was not about slavery and rewriting the history of segregation to say it wasn't that bad is a way of justifying present-day racist attitudes," he said.

Although crowds at public events tend to be on the small side, the Internet, the communication method of choice among neo-Confederate groups, continues to buzz with activity. One League member, Pat Baughman of Bamberg, has been working for nearly a year to establish a "Confederate colony," a gated community for people "with similar values."

Until about a month ago, Baughman was looking at property north of Abbeville. After the idea fell through, he turned his attention to some land near Lawrenceburg, Tenn.

"I wanted to make sure there was a place for people who enjoy the Confederate heritage, who are proud of it, to simply have a place to retire and be together and go to their SCV meetings and be together," Baughman said. "Our idea is to do what we can to maintain and keep the anti-Southern bias from killing our culture. We're in a situation where there's a cultural genocide going on, and the average person in the South doesn't have a clue."

Baughman said his colony idea has drawn a lot of interest. Whether it becomes a reality remains to be seen.

Given the climate of patriotism that began two years ago and persisted through the war with Iraq, League officials acknowledge the time may not be ideal to pursue a Southern nationalist agenda. But they continue to believe its time is coming.

"We don't place too much stock on watching short-term events," said Hill, the League president. "We're focused on the long term. And I think the long-term trend of the American empire is down.

"We just have to be patient."