Image
Description
Flag of the Confederate States of America,
believed to have been constructed in the summer of 1861 in
Rockingham County, North Carolina. The unusual eleven star flag
dates from 1861, after the attack on Fort Sumter, when the original
seven Confederate states (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida,
Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas) had been joined by Virginia,
Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina. The flag measures 44 inches
high by 70 inches wide and is constructed of silk, hand-stitched
together in panels. There is a layer of plain-woven off-white cotton
between the silk layers. In the blue canton there are 10 stars in a
circle surrounding a single star. The stars are appliquéd with a
satin-weave white silk with a decorative, narrow silk braid sewn
around the perimeter. There are two red bars with a white bar in the
center. It is edged on 3 sides with gold fringe and includes the
slogan "Defend Our Homes" stenciled on the center white bar, and a
separate small banner, 7 inches by 38 inches, with the slogan
"Victory or Death." Accompanying the flag is a blue and white silk
cord with tassels at each end. The flag was passed down through the
family of Lieutenant Colonel Andrew J. Boyd, a prominent Rockingham
County attorney and businessman who was the first president of the
Bank of Reidsville and the founder of Reidsville Cotton Mills, later
Edna Cotton Mills. Andrew J. Boyd enlisted on June 3, 1861, as a
lieutenant in Company L, 21st North Carolina Regiment. He became
Captain of this company and was then transferred to the 45th
Regiment, created during the summer of 1862, serving as major and
finally lieutenant colonel. It is believed that the flag was for
ceremonial purposes and never flew in battle. It's exact whereabouts
during the war are undocumented, but it likely remained in
Rockingham County. In the September 3, 1897 issue of the Reidsville
Review, an article appeared under the headline "Defend our Homes"
and a smaller headline "Under This Inscription did Old Confederates
Battle." Within this article, an account of a Confederate soldier
reunion attended by an estimated 4000 veterans and citizens is a
reference to a flag flown for the event: "Over the stand, erected
for the speakers, floated a Confederate flag, aged, tattered and
torn. The inscription, "Defend our Homes" in bronze letters was at
all times in plain view. It was for this that many a soldier, who
was present on this occasion, had battled; many of them had fallen
from the ranks, wounded, while by them lay their dead
comrades."