The late Orren Randolph Smith of North Carolina was officially proclaimed the creator of the flag of the Confederacy, the famed “Stars and Bars” by the convention of the United Confederate Veterans here in 1915. Major Smith wrote the story of the origin of the flag in 1912, with the purpose of reading it before the reunion gathering, but his health failed and he died in 1913. General Julian S. Carr, commander of the United Confederate Veterans and a person friend of Mr. Smith read the manuscript to his comrades seven years ago. The story told by Major Smith, in part, was as follows:
“North Carolina gave to Dixie the first national flag of the Confederate States of America. The representatives of the seven States which had seceded were gathered at Montgomery, Ala., when they decided to ‘go it alone’ if necessary and organize a new country, with a new flag. They formed a Constitution of ‘native white citizens,’ and advertised for a flag.
“In 1855-56 I was living at Warren, Ohio, the headquarters of the underground railroad, and from that time I kept in touch with all the great events that forced us into the war. I was an original secessionist., Having been with Taylor in 1946-48 in that war that gave the Southwest from the Rio Grande to the Pacific to the United States with Albert Johnston in Utah in 1858, I knew that a soldier’s flag should have the deepest, truest significance and not simply a blending of bright colors. His flag is his inspiration. It stands for home, kindred and country. It had so much meaning to me I hoped my flag would tell its story to all who saw it. So when I read the advertisement, ‘ Flag Wanted,’ I was ready.
“In 1861 I was living in Louisburg, N.C., and I went to my old friend, Miss Becky Murphy, (now Mrs. W.B. Winborne of Wilson, N.C.) and asked her to put the stitches in a little flag for me, and I tore the bars and cut the stars while she sewed the idea of my flag I took from the Trinity. Three in one. The three bars were State, church and press.
“Red represented State: Legislative, judiciary and executive; white for Church: Father Son and Holy Ghost; red for the press: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, liberty of press, all bound together by a field of blue the heavens over all, earing a star for each State in the Confederation. The seven white stars, all the same size, were placed in a circle, showing that each State had equal rights and privileges, irrespective of size or population. The circle having neither head nor foot, signified ‘You defend me and I’ll protect you.’
“After the model was gone I asked Miss Murphy to make me a large flag, 9 by 12 feet, and it was on Monday, March 18, 1861, that I raised this large flag to the top of a pole 100 feet high, on the corner of Courthouse Square, in Louisburg, the county seat of Franklin, North Carolina. The dress goods for both model and large flag I bought from Barrow’s store, and the two men that helped me and were most interested in the flags were W.J. Green, colonel C.S.A., and Algy Strother, now living in Louisburg. The pole I made by splicing two tall saplings, taken from my mother’s plantation, five miles from town.
“Over the large flag I had a long blue streamer, such as an admiral uses on his shop when homeward bound, and on this I had a star for the Old North State, for though she did not secede until May 20, I knew she was ‘Homeward bound.’ March 17, 1861, was a great day for Louisburg. The town was filled with people from miles around. This is the story of the old ‘Secesh Flat,’ the ‘Stars and Bars,’ the flag that led the men in gray through the most difficult warfare.
“This was the first national flag and until after Manassas, when it was decided to use Beauregard’s flag in battle, it was the only flag of the Confederate States of America. It is the United Daughters of the confederacy have honored above all others. It will never be furled as long as there is a ‘Daughter’ to wear her U.D.C. badge, and so keep alive the ‘Stars and Bars.’
“Today it leads the Southern Memorial Association and ‘The Daughters’ in all their great battles for the right, raising monuments to our dead comrades at Shiloh, Arlington, Gettysburg and all over the country where lie those who gave their lives for our cause.”
From the Richmond Dispatch, as reprinted on the front page of The Franklin Times, Louisburg, N.C., July 14, 1922
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