Your right the IBFP article does say “possibility” and “Could be” but what is translated in the Charleston newspaper’s and the indication in the Citadel Historical Council reports are taking it as fact that this flag is the one that flew over the battery on Morris Island, and that is wrong.

The known facts are, no less then five eyewitness state that the flag was red with a white palmetto. Nothing is said about a crescent on the flag in period newspapers, the OR report or even in the history of the Citadel done by a professor who was teaching at the Citadel at the time of the firing on the Star of the West. Also the eyewitness illustration of the Citadel, shows a flag that has a crescent and palmetto in the center of the field or center left, with both devices the same size. The Iowa flag is known to have been in Mobile. The rest of the Citadel report is speculation, without creditable historical facts, I don’t understand why the IBFP would say research indicates that there is a possibility that it could be the Spirit flag of the Citadel. The so call spirit flag didn’t come about until 1970, or about. The Citadel did not have a sports team in the 1860’s. At football games they flew a Confederate battle flag until the P C crowed got a hold of them, about the same time that woman were allowed in.

From the pictures that I have of the flag, do not show signs that it flew over the battery for the three months or so that the Cadets were stationed on Morris Island after the firing on the Star of the West. With the steady breeze of Charleston harbor the flag would show signs of repair to the lower and upper fly. There would be signs of loose threads on the palmetto and crescent. The whipped eyelets would be more pear-shaped if it was just used daily at the battery or over the Citadel.

If the conservators report has evidence of pollen or other microscopic evidence that connect it to the Charleston area, or just to South Carolina, that would be interesting and it would connect it to the Citadel, but I have not seen such evidence.

The flag is just being historically misrepresented as something it is not and that is a disappointment and reflects on the creditability of Iowa Historical Museum.

[Research indicates there is a possibility that this unidentified red palmetto flag could be the Spirit Flag of the Citadel. ... This flag may be the flag that Citadel troops flew over Morris Island as they repelled the Star of the West on Jan. 9, 1861.]

Please show me this research, if it is the CHC report then you have nothing to show.

If anything the flag is a pre war secession flag or a blockade runner flag made in Mobile and not something dragged through four years of war. Please show me I’m wrong, I’ve ask the Citadel and the Iowa museum for years now, give me something.

Happy Trails!
Tom Martin