Flag of the Confederacy
II look a lot of research lo determine wlm
designed “The Konnie Blue Flag'/* hut in
the end full credit was given to Major Orren
llandol|ili Smith.
THE record of our Slate in Ihe
Civil War is indeed one of
which we may well be proud,
as is attested by the following fig¬
ures which speak louder than mere
words: With a voting population
of military age of only 115,000 we
furnished 127.000 soldiers to the
Confederate army; and we lost
40,375 of our brave volunteers,
more than double the loss sus¬
tained by any other Southern
State. And on the fatal field of
Gettysburg, one out of four of the
Southern soldiers who fell were
North Carolinians. Our troops
were first at Bethel; foremost at
Gettysburg; furthest at Chicka-
mauga; and fired the last round
at Appomattox. It was not there¬
fore without reason that General
Lee exclaimed with deep feeling:
“God bless North Carolina.”
Our State possesses the further
distinction that one of her sons
was the designer of the "Stars and
Bars.” the battle (lag of the South,
the “Bonnie Blue Flag” of song
and story, the “Conquered Ban¬
ner" of Father Ryan’s famous
poem.
The claim of Major Orren Ran¬
dolph Smith, of Franklin County,
that he was the designer of this
flag was finally officially settled in
his favor after a long and heated
controversy. The Major was a na¬
tive of Warren County, and was
a veteran of two wars, for he
fought in Mexico under General
Zachary Taylor, and ho cam¬
paigned against the Utah Mormons
in 1856 under the leadership of
General Albert Sydney Johnson,
who was later to give his “last
full measure of devotion” to the
Southern cause at the bloody battle
of Shiloh.
How It Happened
In 1861 the Major was living at
Louisburg, an ardent secessionist,
and in March of that year when
he saw an advertisement, “Flag
wanted by the Confederate Con¬
gress," he promptly prepared the
design which was later adopted
by the Congress. The Major took
his idea for his flag from Trinity,
THE STATE. November 24. 1945
By IK. C. LAWRENCE
the three bars representing
Church. State and Press. Red
represented the State departments,
legislative, executive and judicial;
white stood for the Church
Father. Son and Holy Ghost; all
bound together by a field of blue
( the heavens over all
»
bearing a
star for each of the seven Southern
States which were then members
of the Confederacy. The seven
white, five - pointed stars were
placed in a circle, showing that
each State had equal rights and
privileges irrespective of size or
population. The circle, being with¬
out end, represented eternity.
Having settled the design in his
own mind, he took his idea to his
friend Miss Becky Murphy ( later
Mrs. W. B. Winborne of Wilson)
and at his request she prepared
the model of the flag which was
forwarded by the Major to the
Confederate Congress then in ses¬
sion at Montgomery. Alabama.
The First Flag
At the request of the Major,
this lady then prepared a large
flag, nine by twelve feet, and on
March 18. 1861. the Major raised
this flag to the top of a pole one
hundred feet high on the corner
of the courthouse square in Louis¬
burg, the first time a Confederate
flag was ever hoisted in this State;
and over this flag, the fiery South¬
erner hoisted a long blue streamer,
such as is used by an admiral
when his ship is homeward
bound, and on this streamer he
placed a single star to signify that
the Old North State was indeed
“homeward bound." The vision of
the Major was prophetic, for with¬
in sixty days thereafter North
Carolina adopted the Ordinance of
Secession and joined the Confed¬
eracy.
The Smith flag was the first Na¬
tional flag of the South and. until
after Mannassas when it was de¬
cided to thereafter use the Beaure¬
gard flag in battle, it was the onlv
flog of the Confederate States. This
was the flag which floated above
the heads of the Southerners at
Bull Run. the first great battle of
the conflict — the flag which was
carried by Jackson’s men when
General Bernard E. Bee of South
Carolina sought to rally his dis¬
orderly and retreating brigade by
pointing with his sword and ex¬
claiming: “There is Jackson stand¬
ing like a stone wall; rally behind
the Virginians.” If the advice of
Jackson had been taken on the
night of that battle, the Confeder¬
ate army would have immediately
marched on Washington and that
city would have been an easy prey
to the invading forces. There was
no organized force of Fedcrals to
dispute the crossing of the Poto¬
mac. and the flag of Major Smith
might have floated, temporarily at
least, above the dome of the’ na¬
tional capitol.
The Controversy Starts
After the war, there arose a
bitter controversy concerning the
designing of this flag, the claim
of Major Smith being disputed by
Nicola Marschall of Alabama. The
rival claims of the contending par¬
ties received much attention from
time to time from the press of the
South, and was the subject of much
discussion at different meetings of
the United Confederate Veterans.
State rivalry was injected into the
controversy, the North Carolinians
supporting the claims of Major
Smith; the representatives of Ala¬
bama standing by those of Mar¬
schall, and each side had its out¬
side adherents. Finally at the
Jacksonville reunion in 1914. after
the death of Major Smith, a reso¬
lution was adopted empowering
the Commander of the United
Confederate Veterans to appoint a
committee “to investigate the de¬
signing of the Stars and Bars." A
Southwide and thoroughly impar¬
tial committee was named by the
Commander, headed by a past na¬
tional Commander, and this com¬
mittee accorded a patient considor-
( Continued on page 27)
1 1
