The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1935-01-03

Seal of 1894, and that of 1917 as well
bore no resemblance whatever to the
old Baltimore arms. Not until 1885,
was there recourse to the old design
and on that occasion it was a blunder.
ing business which copied an inaccu.
rate woodcut. In 1876 this blunder was
corrected and at about that same time
the existence of a Maryland flag
was mentioned, but in hazy terms.
***
Tunstall Smith is quoted as stating
that in some way the picturesque rec
and white Grassland arms had come
into use-to the total exclusion, oddly
of the old-time black and gold stripes
Maryland Confederate soldiers used it
and this so-called maryland Cross
is cut in the capstone of the Second
Maryland Infantry &c. S. Al memor-
ial at Gettysburg. Incidentally, the
flag carried in that battle is now pre-
served at the State House at Annap-
oils, Mr.. Smith believing it "the only
Confederate flag carried into the
Union lines at Gettysburg without
being lost"
Brighten. Washington Bowie refers
to Fifth Regiment tradition of car
rying the present flag even before the
Civil War, but finds no record to sup
port the tradition. And Mr.. Culver
points out that although so important
, an occasion as the Baltimore Sesqui-
centennial of 1880 would seem likely
to produce display of the State flag,
if it existed, none of the existing rec
ords, in text or picture, family sug-
gests any such display at that time.
However, The Suns account of the
Maryland Exposition" of 1889 speaks
of beautiful banners composed of red
and white crosses or blocks of orange
and black" Mr.. Culver thinks this in
dicates two kinds of banner, one of
them in the Calvert colors and the
other in the Grassland colors, partic-
ularly as other accounts speak of
"the United States colors, the Balti-
more colors and the Maryland colors."
The employment of four colors in a
single flag, as in the seal, he thinks
came still later. Certainly a flag very
much like the present one was popu-
larly accepted by 1901, for in that
year the Adjutant-General purchased
four-color flag for the Governors
special use, and Gov. John Walter
Smith used it. The flag itself is in
the State House. In 1904 a bill "to le-
galize and adopt the Maryland flag"
was enacted under Governor War
field. So brief is the official life of the
present flag.
In a closing chapter Mr.. Culver
points out that, quite apart from the
"black and yellow flag" of the old col
ony, there were other flags for each
of the first eleven counties-simple
one-color flags for the most part and
perhaps not much more significant
than the guidons now used by artillery
batteries. In 1894 colors were def
nitely assigned as follows:
st. Mary's-Red.
Anne Arundel-White.
'Charles-Orange.
Talbot-Purple.
Dorchester-Buff.
Kent-Blue.
Calvert-Yellow.
Baltimore-Green.
Somerset-Union Jack.
Cecil-Crimson.
And the following year Prince
Georges was assigned ga red cross in
white field" (Which conceivably
may have some relation to the Con-
federate regiments Maryland flag"
many years later). Somerset's use of
the British Jack may have been due
to the geographical fact of its border
ing the sea.
All these were undoubtedly used at
the militia gatherings under the royal
Governors, but even the memory of
them has now all but vanished. On the
contrary, the 1904 emblem is now so
widely known that most Marylanders
assume it has flown over the State
for three whole centuries, rather than
the three decades of it's official exis-
tonno