Catherine Ladd Confederate Flag Design

 

Catherine Stratton Ladd

Confederate Flag Design


Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume XXXVIII. Richmond, Virginia: Published by the Society. 1910. Broadfoot Publishing Company Morningside Bookshop. 1991.


The Flag of the Confederate States of America. Extracted from Prible's History of the Flag of the United States of America. (pages 243-261)

 

    "Early in February, 1861, a convention of six of the seceding States, viz., South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida, assembled at Montgomery, Ala. These States were represented by forty-two delegates. Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, was elected President, and Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, Vice-President, of the Confederate States of America for the current year."

    "While the committee had the matter of a permanent government under consideration, the convention discussed the subject of a national flag."

    "Various devices were presented. The designers, in many instances, were patriotic ladies, and many of the designs were but modifications of the grand old Stars and Stripes." (p. 250)

 

    "W. W. Boyce, of South Carolina, who had been a member of United States Congress seven years, presented a model for a flag which he had received, with a letter, from Mrs. C. Ladd, of Winnsboro, who described it as 'tri-colored, with a red union, seven stars, and the crescent moon.' "

    "She offered her three boys to her country, and suggested 'Washington Republic' as a name for the new nation."

    "In presenting the flag, Boyce said: 'I will take the liberty of sending her letter to the Congress. It is full of authentic fire. It is worthy of Rome in her best days, and might well have been read in the Roman Senate on that disastrous day when the victorious banner of the great Carthaginian was visible from Mont Aventine. And I may add, sir, that as long as our women are impelled by these sublime sentiments, and our mountains yield the metals out of which the weapons are forged, the lustrous stars of our unyielding Confederacy will never pale their glorious fires, though baffled oppression may threaten with its impotent sword, or, more dangerous still, seek to beguile with the siren song of conciliation.' "

    "Chilton, Tombs, Stephens and others presented devices for flags. They were sent in daily from the cotton-growing States, a great many of them showing attachment to the old banner, yet accompanied by the most fervid expressions of sympathy with the Southern cause." (p. 252)

 


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24 January 2003,  Brian Brown