Alan Pitts
Bonnie Blue Flag
Tue Jan 30 09:40:43 2001


This passage appears in McMorries history of the 1st Ala. Regt., describing an incident at Pensacola about April 1861:

THE SONG OF THE BONNIE BLUE FLAG.

The first time I ever heard the song of the Bonnie Blue Flag was under the following circumstances: Lieut. M. B. Locke of the Perote Guards, later lieutenant-colonel of the regiment, came to me about sundown one evening and asked me to attend the theatre with him that night in Warrenton. I gladly accepted the invitation for several reasons. In the first place, it gave me an outing beyond our lines for a few hours. In the second, I was fond of theatres anyway. In the third, I always loved "Mike" and deem his personal friendship one of my most valuable earthly possessions.

We went. The large building was densely packed with soldiers, and a few ladies. I have no recollection of any special points in the play, but at the close was an incident never during life to be effaced from memory. A gentleman soloist, and a fine singer he was, advanced to the front of the stage bearing a large, blue, silk flag with a golden star in the center. Slowly unfurling the banner he began the song of the "Bonnie Blue Flag." As he named each State in the order of its secession the soldiers from these respective States cheered with the greatest enthusiasm. But as he concluded the last stanza,

"For the lone star of the Bonnie Blue Flag
Has grown to be eleven,"

he at the same time reversed the banner, displaying on the opposite side a galaxy of eleven stars, representing the eleven States of our new-born Confederacy. The sentiment, the occasion, the highly dramatic rendition of the whole recitation electrified the great assembly. Every man at once seemed to lose his reason. They sprang to their feet, rushed forward frantically waving their caps and wildly gesticulating, some out of joy beating comrades with fists, others embracing and kissing, still others shouting and yelling like mad men. This reign of Bedlam lasted ten minutes. Though forty-two years have elapsed since this incident, the whole scene rises from the dead past as vividly as on the night of its occurrence.

• Bonnie Blue Flag — Leland Hamner, Fri Feb 2 09:19
• Bonnie Blue Flag — Alan J. Pitts, Fri Feb 9 19:24