I found the following article in the Oxford Intelligencer (Oxford, Mississippi) December 5, 1860 - Even before the secession convention met and chose a state flag, enterprising Mississippians were designing their own:

"There now floats from the top of the Masonic Hall, over the Intelligencer office, as handsome a flag, we venture to say, as can be found. It is a flag of fifteen stripes, and in place of the blue field with its galaxy of stars, there is substituted a single star, on the right and near the top; a magnolia tree, and a rattlesnake coiled, with the motto Noli me tangere - 'do not tread on me.' The design is unique and appropriate; the execution is highly laudable, and the ladies and gentlemen who were concerned in getting it up, deserve the highest praise. We, in common with our fellow-citizens generally, return our grateful thanks to them. Mississippians can ask no prouder banner to point the way to victory; and, for one, we promise that, if, in spite of the ominous warning that have been given, our enemies still threaten to place the heel of aggression upon us, we are willing to follow that flag to battle, to strike for our rights, and to return with it, wreathed in victory, or to return no more."

"Forever float that standard sheet,
Where breathes the foe but falls before us;
With freedom's soil beneath our feet,
And freedom's banner waving o'er us"