Guest Post by Steve Candidus
Happy 210th birthday Mr. President.
Born: Jefferson Finis Davis, Jun 3, 1808, Fairview, Kentucky, U.S.
Died: Dec 6, 1889, New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
The first national flag of the Confederacy.
Texas is represented by the seventh star.
I am very proud of that.
By the way, the First National Flag of the Confederacy (March 4, 1861, to May 1, 1863) with from seven to thirteen stars is the actual “Stars and Bars” flag, not the cross of stars.
The cross of stars that most people are familiar with is the Confederate battle flag (if square) and was used to distinguish sides in the smoke and confusion of the battlefield.
If rectangular, it was the Confederate Naval Jack and was used for the same purpose in naval warfare.
Steve Candidus (Steve C) is a writer and a history buff that works as a product and application specialist of large AC electric motors in Spring, Texas.
Thanks, Steve,
As a Native Texan of almost 70 years, I love Texas history and really appreciated this post. We lived in the Houston area from 1973 until I retired. Further, we lived in Spring, from 1998 until the end of 2003 when I retired. Great place, but has grown amazingly since we left 14 years ago. Still have friends there and visit now and again. Have a great day, Steve.
Steve
Words are sorta fine, but how about providing pics – you know the phrase.
Jefferson Davis
[img
[/img]
Confederate battle flag
[img
[/img]
Confederate naval jack
[img
[/img]
Many thanx, Steve
I’m a life long history buff also….especially the Civil War.
I live off of HWY 15 in NC…the “Jefferson Davis Highway.”
Hanging in my large barn from the rafters is every major American flag from the Revolutionary War as well as The first flag of the Confederacy, the Bonnie Blue Flag and one of the greatest battle flags in American history, the Stars and Bars of the Confederate Battle Flag.
The Marine Corps Flag is in a prominent place….Semper Fi
The Stars and Stripes hangs form my front porch.
I also display the Gadsden flag as “Don’t Thread on Me” fits my attitude and reality like a KA-Bar in its sheath.
I have a binder with the history of every flag printed down and in a plastic sheet protector. I offer the binder to some visitors as most are clueless about the rich, bloodstained and honorable history of all the American flags I display. I will steep my grandson is every flag’s history.
However, my main flag pole on the farm holds the flag I fly above all the others:
The Pine Tree Flag…An Appeal to Heaven.
https://appealtoheaven.wordpress.com/about/
I was born in PA, raised in NJ and grew up in Vietnam…I also have a sign in my barn that says:
Yankee by Birth
Rebel by Choice
You don’t have to a snake to be a proud Copperhead…
Anon….too bad the State of NC doesn’t make your home and collection an Historical site. Just think of the numbers that would visit to see your collection rather than visiting some historical site with just a marker.
Actually, referring to it as the ‘Civil War’ is technically incorrect although I do understand the use of it as simply being ‘conventional’.
A civil war is defined as two or more factions fighting for control of a government.
The Confederate States of America had already succeeded peacefully from the voluntary union of states just as the original thirteen colonies had succeeded from the British government almost a hundred years earlier.
They had no more intention of trying to take over the US government in Washington DC than the colonies had of taking over the British government in England.
Both were wars of independence.
For Southerners that are still a tad unhappy about the war and ruin imposed upon them the title of the ‘War of Northern Aggression’ seems to fit.
For those that are a bit less aggressive about it the ‘War for Independence’ seems more appropriate.
However, since the United States was the victor, a more correct ‘War to Prevent Southern Independence’ would seem to be the most accurate name.
In any case, we have never had a ‘Civil War.’
YET!!!
Steve…just fyi for future ref
3rd para, succeeded s/b seceded
You are right.
(Damned English majors…)
Steve, your point is one I’ve argued for years; it wasn’t a “civil war”, precisely because the Confederacy wasn’t interested in taking over the US government. It was the second American revolution.
I agree with Anonymous, although I wasn’t an English major. I just know how to spell.
There is a great old book still available from many sources:
Albert Taylor Bledsoe’s masterful work, “Is Davis A Traitor? or Was Secession a Constitutional Right Previous to the War of 1861”?
The answer is no he was not, and yes secession was (and is) Constitutional.
Thanks Abe, you fucking tyrant.
A pdf is available here:
https://www.forgottenbooks.com/en/download/IsDavisaTraitor_10063022.pdf
Yankees = 1
Rebels = 0
HALFTIME
Jeff Davis was never tried for his “treason”. He wanted a trial to plead his case that secession was legal. It never happened. As in all wars, money and power was behind it. Some say that if the south had won they were not going to stop with the thirteen states. They were thinking also about including as much of the Caribbean as possible too!
Early in the 1800’s there was discussion among some New England states about secession.
Apparently it was OK for them, and was conveniently forgotten 50+ years later.
Yankee Confederates: New England Secession Movements Prior to the War Between the States
http://www.ditext.com/dilorenzo/yankee.html
Proud to be born deep in the heart. Ft. Worth, Texas.
Prior to Hurricane Camille I signed the guest book at Beauvoir, the retirement home of Jeff Davis as part of a 20 mile Boy Scout hike. I came away from it knowing the beaches of the Florida Panhandle were better than Biloxi’s.
By the time I had to detour around Biloxi driving from California to Florida, because Camille had come ashore the day before, the ghosts of the Confederacy were in sharp decline. I no longer saw the “coloreds only” or “whites only” signs encountered in my youth. It was easy to see the shortcomings of discrimination on the basis of skin color rather than the content of our character. Vestiges of the old South remains and like Beauvoir, are a memorial to our past.