Hayes Lowe
Here's "the rest of the story"...
Thu Apr 12 17:13:49 2001


Well, we have all been giving bits and pieces...I think that this may be the last piece.

Again, from ADAH:

"The obverse of the flag bears the motto, “Our Homes, Our Rights, We Entrust to Your Keeping, Brave Sons of Alabama” and seven stars linked together by a chain. The reverse bears an illustration of the goddess of liberty breaking her manacles and the motto, “Tyrany [sic] is Hateful to the Gods.” The use of seven stars is common on flags made after the formation of the Confederacy, but before the beginning of the War. After the War began and additional states seceded, seven star flags became obsolete. Clanton’s Brigade was not formed until the spring of 1863, so the use of a seven star pre-war flag by them was questionable. Additional research revealed a description of the flag in Rear Admiral George Henry Preble’s book, Origin and History of the American Flag, originally published in 1872. Preble had received the description of the flag from Charles Brandt of the U. S. War Department. In his letter dated November 18, 1871, Brandt described the flag as “an Alabama State Flag, originally of white silk containing on one side the coat of arms and motto of the state, on the other, surmounted by seven stars linked together, a scroll inscribed, ‘Our homes, Our Rights, We entrust to your Keeping, Brave sons of Alabama.’” It is important to note that at no time did Brandt attribute the flag to Clanton’s Brigade, and he referred to it as having been “originally white,” while LaGrange’s 1865 report described Clanton's Brigade flag as blue. This may indicate that LaGrange was referring to a different flag in his report, and that the Clanton’s Brigade attribution was made in error when the flag was sent from the U. S. War Department in 1905. In addition, while the flag had been assigned capture number 534, this number appears nowhere on the flag."

Again, all this leads me to believe that this is a different flag than the mentioned blue flag. However wrote the above for the ADAH seems to be strongly suggesting this is the case.