The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-08-29
THE STARS AND BARS.

President Lincoln was inaugurated at Washington the southern congress had adopted the stars and bars and on that day 1t was first flung to the breeze from the state house at Montgomery. Prior to this the state flag had been used by the several seeding states The first flag raised in the Confederacy is in the flag collection at the war department at Wash ington. It is palmetto flag, and is said to have waved over Charleston in 1861 A palmetto tree of eight branches is sewed upon its center, and it has eleven red stars surrounding it, with rising red moon at the top.
 On February 4, I86I. the secession con- yen.;on Of South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia and Flor ida met Tn the old state house at Mont gomery, Ala, and proceeded to organize the Southern Confederacy. Jefferson Davis was elected president and Alexap- der Stephens vice-president, and the con- vention adopted constitution and chose the Confederate flag. When making their selection they received designs and letters from all parts of the south, and these are now hidden away in an old scrap book among the Confederate archives in the war department at Washington.
 It i' ragged volume. ei hteen inches long, twelve inches wide and four inches thick. Its paper, originally white, is now faded pink. Its covers are worn, and its corners are dog-eared. In it are pasted I29 designs for Confederate flag, which were presented to the Montgomery con- vention, and by their sides, or on the op- posite pages, are the numerous letters which accompanied them. Some of these letters are addressed to Jefferson Davis, some to Alexander Stephens, some to Robert Toombs, and great number to Robert PorCher Miles, who was the chair. man of the committee on flags.
 The designs are of all sizes, shapes and colors. Some of them, especially these sent by ladies, are of silk, the different colors neatly sewed some are of bunt- ing, rudcly painted; !; and large number are made up of pieces of different colored pasteboard or paper together into the de- sign desired. There is little originality shown in these devices. Most of them are combinations of the colors and form of the stars and stripes, while not few are modelled after the flags of other na- tions now in use. In design No. Al, for instance. sent to Jefferson Davis from Cotfeeville, Ala, the very colors s swear at each other" The device is two feet by three in size, with one-half of the ground blue and the other half dirty yellow. On this broad blue half which IS nearest the pole, big black eye is painted. looking toward the yellow, and around in the shape of crescent which faces the front of the flag, are seven white stars. From the eye eight bright stripes radiate, running out of the blue and los ing themselves in the yellow.
 Four designs directed to Hon. Robert Toombs represented phoenix as rising from the ashes, painted upon a white field, with borders of red and blue. One of the largest designs has fifteen large stripes of alternate white and red. It has blue union, from the upper corner of which, almost resting against the staff, looks out a great eye, below which is painted a red hand grasping a wreath of green. The most beautiful designs are those sent by women. One device sent by the ladies of Charleston was made of red, white and blue put together with many delicate stitches It is eighteen inches long, and consists of two series of three stripes of red, white and red above and below broad stripe of blue, upon which are sewed seven white stars Six of the stars represented the states then in convention, the seventh Texas, which was about to secede. From the designs and the letters it can be seen how general was the desire throughout the south to retain all that was possible of the old flag.
 Of the long report of the committee on March 5, 1861, fully one-half is given up to an exp.anation why more of the stars and stripes could not be embodied in the flag presented. The report then states that the committee humbly think the fol- lowing design combines the above requis- ties, and they submit it as "the flag ot the Confederate States of America" "lt shall consist of red field, with a white space extending horizontally through the center and equal in width to one-third the width of the flag, the red spaces above and below to be the same width as the white. The union blue, extending down through the white space stopping at the lower red space. In the center of the union circle of white stars correspond ing in number with the states of the Con. federacy." This report was adopted and the above design became known as the stars and bars.
 The stars and bars were, however, sailure as a battle flag. It's similarity to the stars and stripes made it useless and this was painfully apparent at the battle of Bull Run, where the oolors of the two armies could not be distinguished from each other. "After the battle," writes General Beauregard, " it was found that many persons in both armies firmly be. lieved that each side had used as strat- egem the flags of his opponent, and Gen. eral Joseph Johnston and myself decided to adopt battle-dag for our forces" Designs were asked for, and one presented by Colonel James B. Walton. of Louis jana, was chosen. This design was orig inally oblong but General Johnston mod i6ed it by making itsquare, and, so mod flied, 1t became the battle-aag of the Confederscy. It was in September, 1861,