150-yearsd-ago - FLAG ADOPTED BY CONFEDERACY

[Editor's Note: Excerpts from UT Tyler Digital Archives]

First National Flag of the Confederacy

SUGAR PLANTER [WEST BATON ROUGE, LA], March 9, 1861, p.2, c.1
A Flag Adopted by the Confederate States.—Information has been received in this city that the Southern Congress have unanimously determined upon a flag for the confederate [sic] States. The design was originated by the committee on Flag and not from any of the models presented. The following is the description of our flag: Blue union, with seven white stars; three horizontal stripes, red white red. The first red and the white extending from the union to the end of the flag, and the lower red stripe extending the whole length of the flag, occupying the entire space below the union. The stripes are all of equal width. It was hoisted on the Capitol at Montgomery on the 4th inst.

[Editor's Notes: The flag and seal committee of the provisional Confederate Congress reported the above design as the First National Flag of the Confederacy on March 4, 1861 in Montgomery, Ala. There was no recorded vote on the flag. It was nicknamed the "Stars and Bars." The flag is believed to have been designed by Nicola Marschall, a Prussian, and is said to have been inspired by the Austrian flag. At first it had seven stars for the seven original Confederate States. Additional stars were added as other Southern states seceded and joined the Confederacy up to a total of 13. It flew until the adoption of the Second National Flag on May 1, 1863.]

Henry Watkins Allen
(LSU Special Collections)

SUGAR PLANTER [WEST BATON ROUGE, LA], March 9, 1861, p. 2, c. 1

The Travels of a Sugar Planter; or Six Months in Europe. By Capt. H. W. Allen. For sale by J. McCormick.
We are indebted to our friend, McCormick, for a copy of the above work by our fellow parishioner, Capt. Allen, which we shall peruse and comment upon hereafter. Every West Baton Rougean, at least, should get a copy of the "Travels" and place it in their libraries. The wanderings of Capt. A., formed a rich treat to his friends at home who perused his accounts in the columns of a cotemporary. It is a neat little work and gotten up in good style.