Smoky Mountains Sunrise

Friday, October 2, 2009

Officials Think SC Civil War Flag Found In Iowa


From the Chicago Tribune

Researchers seem to have solved the mystery of what happened to the "Big Red" flag flown by Citadel cadets when they fired on a ship trying to resupply Fort Sumter three months before the Civil War.

The Post and Courier of Charleston reports a 10-by-7-foot flag with a large white Palmetto tree and a white crescent on a red field has been located in storage at an Iowa museum.

Researchers think it is the same flag that flew over Morris Island when cadets fired on the supply ship Star of the West, forcing the ship to turn away, in January of 1861.


The Civil War began that April with a Confederate bombardment of Union-held Sumter in Charleston Harbor.


The Citadel adopted a replica of the red flag as a spirit flag almost 20 years ago. But it was unclear what happened to the original.

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