Confederate flag

“ And in this Confederate flag there is a meaning which cannot die—it marks the birthplace of a new nationality, and its place must know it for ever. Even the flag of a rebellion leaves indelible colours in the political atmosphere. ”

“ We have humbled the flag of the United States before the Palmetto and Confederate, and so long as I have the honor to preside as your chief magistrate, so help me God, there is no power on this earth shall ever lower from that fortress those flags, unless they be lowered and trailed in a sea of blood. I can here say to you it is the first time in the history of this country that the stars and stripes have been humbled. That flag has never before been lowered before any nation on this earth. But to-day it has been humbled, and humbled before the glorious little State of South Carolina. ”

“ Nor will it be difficult to conceive, of the many sons of the South whose blood has stained those battle-fields, whose ashes now mingle with Mexican earth, that some, when they last looked on the flag of their country, may have felt their dying moments embittered by the recollection that that flag cast not an equal shadow of protection over the land of their birth, the graves of their parents, and the homes of their children, so soon to be orphans. ”

“ But they are taking us at our word, and this morning they are landing at the Garrison.
"All devices, signs, and flags of the Confederacy shall be suppressed." So says Picayune Butler. Good. I devote all my red, white, and blue silk to the manufacture of Confederate flags. As soon as one is confiscated, I make another, until my ribbon is exhausted, when I will sport a duster emblazoned in high colors, "Hurra! for the Bonny blue flag!" Henceforth, I wear one pinned to my bosom—not a duster, but a little flag; the man who says take it off will have to pull it off for himself ”

“ Both boys were gallant soldiers, but perhaps neither was ever again in greater danger than when excess of patriotism cost the one that hazardous ride on the lightning-rod, the other to assume the equally dangerous but noble position of rescuer.
Both are still living,—veterans now. One, occupying a position of honor and of public trust, is a personal friend of the writer.
To me the Confederate flag was an object of profound love and passionate devotion. It represented hopes that I thought could never fail, possibilities so glorious that imagination was dazzled. ”

“ There were those there who stood by the grave of the Confederate hero years before, and the children of those were there, and of those present no one gainsaid the honor of the death of this hero of El Caney, and none were there but loved, as patriots alone can love, the glorious flag that enshrines the people of a common country as it enshrouds the form that will sleep forever in its blessed folds. ”

“ FOREWORD Forty-eight years and a half have passed, since the last drum-beat of the Confederate States was heard and the furling of their flag forever closed the most wondrous military tragedy of the ages. Numbers and character considered, the tribute the South paid to War has no equal in human records. ”

“ Thy stars are the emblems of Commonwealths free,
Distinct as the billows, but one as the sea.
Each star of thy cluster contains of its own
Vast fountains of all that is bright,
Combined in their lustre, confed’rate became,
They bathe in an ocean of light;
Confederate, yet separate, their limits must be
Distinct as the billows, but one as the sea.
Attraction, repulsion, position combine,
Thy beauty and strength to secure,
May no sad revolution of nature be thine,
While nature herself shall endure ”

“ In that instant was conceived the Confederate Battle Flag, used thereafter throughout the Civil strife.
After the battle, the design—St. Andrew’s Cross—was submitted by General Beauregard, and, approved by General Joseph E. Johnston, was adopted by the Confederate Congress.
“Conceived on the field of battle, it lived on the field of battle, and was proudly borne on every field from Manassas to Appomattox.”
The Confederates were routed and running in disorder. General Jackson was standing immovable. General Bee rode to his side. “They will beat us back!” ”

“ On the banks of the Potomac, there’s an army so grand,
Whose object’s to subjugate Dixie’s fair land;
They say that we’ve split this great Union in two,
And altered the colors of Red, White and Blue.
CHORUS.
Huzzah! Huzzah! we’re a nation that’s true
And we’ll stand by our colors of Red, White and Blue.
Our banner is simple, and by it we’ll stand,
It floats from the Potomac to the great Rio Grande:
It waves o’er a people that’s gallant and true,
And they’ll die defending the Red, White and Blue. ”

“ We put a little Confederate flag at the head of every grave that holds one of our own; and every one o' them Yanks has a little flag at the head of his grave too, only his is the flag he fought for, just as ours is the flag we fought for. It's a pretty sight, my friend," he added softly, "with them five little American flags flutterin' away among the sixty or seventy others."
Verily this Southern hospitality is no vain thing, no mere empty show, or ingratiating veneer to make a spurious article seem real. Personal interest may sometimes rest at the basis of a seeming courtesy. ”

“ A. Lincoln
I do not want to be accused of waving too often our emblem. But I must give in full two letters relating to the Confederate flag. They are not particularly valuable in a money sense, but I do not think any amount would tempt me to sell them. They are the kind that cannot fail to melt the heart of an old bachelor with a fondness for children. The first is addressed by General Leroy P. Walker, Secretary of War in the Confederate Cabinet, to General Beauregard, from Richmond, Virginia, September 14, 1861, and says:—
[Pg 293] ”

“ The magnificent courage and fervor of the Virginians as members of the Confederacy will always be cherished by posterity. When one is well-informed of the deeds, hardships and activities which occurred during the War between the States in Virginia and in other southern states, one can easily understand the ever-present pride which the Confederate Flag does, and always will, inspire. ”

“ That flag which almost a century before had risen from the clouds of war, like a star gleaming out through the darkness of a stormy night, with its design accredited to both Washington and John Adams, was raised over Virginia by Massachusetts, in place of the one whose kinship and likeness to the old banner had never been entirely destroyed.
In March, 1861, the Confederate Congress adopted the Stars and Bars—three horizontal bars of equal width, the middle one white, the others red, with a blue union of nine stars in a circle. This was so like the National Flag as [Pg 167] to cause confusion. ”

“ Some used emblems denoting the State or city of the wearer, others a small Confederate battle-flag. Young faces framed in these pretty hats, or looking out from under a broad-brim, appeared doubly bewitching. Ladies worked early and late, first upon the fabric, and then upon beautifully-stitched homespun shirts, intended as gifts to favorite heroes returning to the front. During the winter nights the light of pine-knot fires had sufficed, but now Confederate candles were used. It did seem as if the bees were Southern sympathizers, and more faithfully than usual "improved each shining hour." ”

“ The Winter was cold and dreary, and we had some difficulty in keeping a supply of rations, which had to be transported from the junction six miles away by wagons over a road deep in mud and mire.
Owing to the difficulty of distinguishing our Virginia state flag from many flags of other states carried by the enemy in the battle of Manassas, whereby we had been threatened with serious consequences, such as occurred with our own brigade on that field: it became necessary to have a flag uniform in design for all the Confederate army. ”

“ AN IMMORTAL TWAIN IT is a coincidence worthy of note, and heretofore unremarked by historians, that, as in the hour of birth of the National Flag there was given to posterity the name of a great Revolutionary hero, the hour of birth of the Confederate Battle Emblem immortalized the name of a hero of the Confederacy.
At four o’clock in the afternoon of that hard-fought battle of Manassas (Bull Run) , July 21, 1861, the Federals were thinning out the lines in gray. Now they were directing their efforts against the wings of Jackson and Beauregard. Jackson’s solemn visage was growing more solemn ”

“ General Johnson reports that he noticed "a Federal flag hold its position for half an hour within ten yards of a flag of one of the regiments (Confederate) in the cut, and go down six or eight times, and that after the fight 100 dead men were lying twenty yards from the cut and some of them within two feet of it." ”

“ For many, black and white, that flag was a reminder of systemic oppression and racial subjugation. We see that now.
Removing the flag from this state’s capitol would not be an act of political correctness; it would not be an insult to the valor of Confederate soldiers. It would simply be an acknowledgment that the cause for which they fought -- the cause of slavery -- was wrong -- (applause) -- the imposition of Jim Crow after the Civil War, the resistance to civil rights for all people was wrong. (Applause.) It would be one step in an honest accounting of America’s history ”

“ THE FLAG OF THE CUMBERLAND THE Confederate frigate, Merrimac, newly arisen from her briny bath in the Norfolk Navy Yards, with her sides new coated in an almost impenetrable mail of iron and rechristened the Virginia, steamed slowly down the river May 8th, 1862, to Newport News, where the Cumberland, the Congress, and the Minnesota of the Union fleet lay at anchor. ”

“ In fine, they have lost more than one third of their territory forever, and of the remaining portion there is not one considerable subdivision over which in some part the flag of the Union does not securely wave. What title to recognition as an independent power can the Confederate rebels present to the neutral powers of the world? ”

“ Special attention is called to the perfidious conduct of the enemy in hoisting on the frigate Congress a white flag, and renewing fire, from that vessel, under the impunity thus obtained.
Jefferson Davis. March 11, 1862.
Richmond, March 11, 1862. To the President.
Sir: I have the honor to lay before you the official report of the naval engagement between the James River squadron, under the command of Flag Officer Franklin Buchanan, and the enemy's fleet, in Hampton Roads, on the 8th instant. ”

“ Does any man's courage impel him to stand boldly forth to take the life of his brethren? Does any man insist upon going upon the open field with deadly weapons to fight his brother on a question of courage? There is no point of pride. These are your brethren; and they have shed as much glory upon that flag as any equal number of men in the Union. They are the men, and that is the locality, where the first Union flag was unfurled, and where was fought a gallant battle before our independence was declared—not the flag with thirteen stripes and thirty-three stars, but a flag with a cross of St. ”

“ There was great rejoicing in Charleston. Thousands had assembled at the Battery, excited spectators of the scene. They exultingly beheld the banner of the Republic lowered, and the flags of South Carolina and the Southern Confederacy raised defiantly over the ramparts of Fort Sumter.
Governor Pickens, the bustling and blustering State executive, thus addressed the populace:8
"We are now one of the Confederate States, and they have sent us a brave and scientific officer, to whom the credit of this day's triumph is due. ”

“ Great gaps were made every second in the ranks, but the gray-clad soldiers closed up to the center, and the color-bearers leaped to the front, shaking and waving the flags. The Union infantry reserved their fire until the Confederates were within easy range, when the musketry crashed out with a roar, and the big guns began to fire grape and canister. On came the Confederates, the men falling by hundreds, the colors fluttering in front like a little forest; for as fast as a color-bearer was shot some one else seized the flag from his hand before it fell. ”

“ They were her [3] daily delight and divinely brilliant dreams by night. With her scissors she cut the form of a small shield, upon which she sewed five-pointed stars and tri-colored stripes, in imitation of General Washington’s coat-of-arms, which embraced stars and pales upon his escutcheon; this shield she fastened upon the eagle’s breast; and, inspired with one bright thought, she seized her meritorious daily work, flung it to the breeze, hung it “UPON THE OUTER WALLS,” and the Freemen of Columbia cheered, and hailed it “The Flag of the Union!” ”

“ It is a practical exhibition in itself of the result of concerted action, and has been from its origin until to-day worshipped as no other ensign designed by man has ever been. It is loved and respected by all who love liberty. It represents the government. It represents our honor. To love it is to love one’s country, a duty more sacred than any other, except love and respect for God.
“Oh, glorious flag! red, white and blue,
Bright emblem of the pure and true!
Oh, glorious group of clustering stars,
Ye lines of light, ye crimson bars.” ”

“ It is no wonder that public indignation is intensifying against these miscreants, and that the demand for laws that will deal with them promptly and sternly, is swelling into a popular clamor. Less than a quarter of a century ago more than two million men rallied around their country’s flag, and cheerfully offered their lives that the Republic might be preserved. It is a glorious banner—the brave old flag of the stars and stripes. It is the flag of Yorktown, and Gettysburg, and Chicamauga, and Vicksburg, and Appomattox. Every man who lives where it floats is a freeman and a sovereign. ”