No, we are not writing about the Cornell University football team, which beat Yale 14 to 12 last weekend in a game noteworthy for the quality of the caviar and Scotch being consumed by tailgaters. We also are not referring to the cinnamon-flavored gum first introduced by Wrigley in the year of our nation's bicentennial. We definitely are not referring to the soda of the same name, which has been produced in Texas since 1937.
This “Big Red” is the historic banner upon which The Citadel based its current “spirit flag” and an important symbol for the school. According to historical sources, “Big Red” flew over an artillery battery on Morris Island, which was manned by Citadel cadets. These same cadets fired the first shots of “The War” on January 9, 1861, when they fired upon the Union re-supply ship Star of the West and prevented it from reaching Fort Sumter. An account of the incident can be found in the Journals of the South Carolina Executive Council for 1861, which are located at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History.
Historians at The Citadel believe that they have located “Big Red” at the State Historical Society of Iowa, where it has been stored since being donated by a Union veteran in 1919. Other Civil War flag experts, including a staff member at SCDAH who conducted research on the banner, are somewhat skeptical that the flag located in Iowa is the same flag that flew over Morris Island. Regardless, The Citadel hopes to receive the flag from Iowa on long-term loan. The episode makes for a great story that ties the past to the present. You can read more about the flag at www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/oct/02/historic-find-in-a-storage-closet/. Enjoy the article and remember that nothing excites/inspires/provokes/angers/incites South Carolinians more than a flag related to “The War.”
Friday, October 2, 2009
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Didn't the State Museum exhibit a large blue and white SC flag that Sherman's troops stole from the unfinished state house? And did this flag not also turn up in a museum in Iowa? Was this the same place? Coincidence?
ReplyDeleteAnother flag of treason....
ReplyDeleteThe SC State Museum did exhibit a very large (18ft. x 35ft.) South Carolina flag in the 1990s. Historians believe that the flag was hanging from (not flying over) the new State House on February 17, 1865, when an Iowa unit captured it and raised the U.S. flag over the State House. A unit member donated the South Carolina flag to the State Historical Society of Iowa in 1910. The flag was loaned to the SC State Museum for exhibition and returned to Iowa in 2002.
ReplyDeleteI've read their report and can only say where's the proof. A lot of what ifs if you as me. But you tell enough lies people will start believing them. I though the Citadel had an honor code?
ReplyDelete