Since we had a couple of questions come up about the whole flag thing because of my
Southerner or Yankee post yesterday, I thought I'd look some things up. For those who don't know, our South Carolina flag looks like this.
It was actually officially adopted right before the start of the Civil War in 1861. Before that, it looked like this.
I found it interesting to discover there are many debates about the crescent shape, but one is thought to be due to those who came from England to find their fortunes. It is believed that most of those men were second and third sons who had no hope of inheritance in England, and those sons had a coat of arms to distinguish them from first sons that bore a crescent shape like this. So it's thought that the state adopted the crescent to honor those sons who came to settle here.
Jimmy was partially right when he said that the Palmetto tree was added because the forts that were defended were built out of palmetto logs. However, it wasn't the Civil War forts that were defended, it was the Revolutionary War fort on Sullivan's Island that later became known as Fort Moultrie, named for the man who commanded the troops in its defense. The palmetto logs were softer wood so they didn't shatter when the cannonballs hit them.
Anyway, when we were talking about the Confederate flag, it was asked why South Carolina never adopted it as our state flag. That's what got me to looking up the history. When SC seceded from the Union, they flew this flag for a while to show their support of the action.
This flag was never actually adopted as a state flag, but it was used as the inspiration for the designing of Confederate Flag we all know. So it's kind of ironic that our flag basically caused the design for that one. What I didn't know was that the Confederate flag was never actually the flag of the Confederate States of America either. It was only a battle flag that was adopted by the military to distinguish the Confederate troops from the Union troops. During their initial battles, the Confederate Flag looked like this and was often confused on the battle field for the United States flag.
Also, many states adopted their own flags during the Civil War so it got a bit confusing to figure out who was who. This flag made it much easier to distinguish in battle, and the generals decided to adopt it as the official battle flag so that they all flew the same one no matter what state they were from.
By the way, for those who didn't know, the Confederate Flag flew on the South Carolina State House from 1961 until 2000 when a bill was passed to remove it. However, it is still on the grounds next to a statue honoring the Confederate soldiers. Honestly, pulling it off the State House only draws more attention to it because it's more visible now on the ground.
I didn't know that our State House has 6 Bronze stars on it that symbolize the cannonballs Sherman's troops fired on it. I really need to get out and see more in this state. It's like our sight-seeing stopped when we stopped moving with the military.
Anyway, I found some of that pretty interesting. I hope I didn't bore you all to death with my little fact finding mission. There is really a lot of history in this state that could be investigated for quite some time.
In case you missed it, my Bailey did a fun
guest post over at Bruce and Tuck's place last night. I also have a Half-Assed Weekend post set up for tomorrow, so if you are around that will be up. Otherwise, have a great weekend, everyone!
