I Am Their Flag

     In 1861, when they perceived their rights to be threatened,when those who would
     alter the nature of the government of their fathers were placed in charge, when
     threatened with change they could not accept, the mighty men of valor began to
     gather. A band of brothers, native to the Southern soil, they pledged themselves
     to a cause: the cause of defending family, fireside, and faith. Between the
     desolation of war and their homes they interposed their bodies and chose me as
     their symbol

     I am their flag

     Their mothers, wives, and sweethearts took scissors and thimbles, needles and
     thread, and from silk or cotton or calico - whatever was the best they had - 
     even from the fabric of their wedding dresses, they cut my pieces and stitched
     my seams.

     I am their flag

     On courthouse lawns, in picnic groves, at train stations across the South the
     men mustered and the women placed me in their hands. "fight hard, win if possible,
     come back if you can; but above all, maintain your honor. Here is your symbol,"
     they said.

     I am their flag

     They flocked to the training grounds and the drill fields. They felt the wrenching
     sadness of leaving home. They endured sickness, lonliness, boredom, bad food, and
     poor quarters. They looked to me for inspiration

     I am their flag

     I was at Sumter when they began in jubilation. I was at Big Bethel when the infantry
     fired its first volley. I smelled the gunsmoke along Bull Run in Virginia, and at
     Belmont along the Mississippi. I was in the debacle at Fort Donelson; I led Jackson
     up the Valley. For Seven Days I flapped in the turgid air of the James river bottoms
     as McClellan ran from before Richmond. Sidney Johnston died for me at Shiloh as 
     would thousands of others whose graves are marked "Sine Nomine" - without a name -
     unknown

     I am their flag

     With ammunition gonethey defended me along the railroad bed at Manassas by throwing
     rocks. I saw the fields run red with blood at Sharpsburg. Brave men carried me
     across Doctor's Creek at Perryville. I saw the blue bodies cover Marye's Heights
     at Fredricksburg and the grey ones fall like leaves in the Round Forrest at Stones
     River.

     I am their flag

     I was a shroud for the body of Stonewall after Chancellorsville. Men ate rats and
     mule meat to keep me flying over Vicksburg. I tramped across the wheat fiels with
     Kemper and Armisted and Garnett at Gettysburg. I know the thril of victory, the
     misery of defeat, and the bloody cost of both.

     I am their flag

     When Longstreet broke the line at Chickamauga, I was in the lead. I was the last
     off Lookout Mountain. Men died to rescue me at Missionary Ridge. I was singed by
     the wildfire that burned to death the wounded in the Wilderness. I was shot to
     tatters in the Bloody Angle at Spotsylvania. I was in it all from Dalton to
     Peachtree Creek, and no worse place did I ever see than Kennasaw Mountain and
     New Hope Church. They planted me over the trenches at Petersburg and there I
     stayed for many long months.

     I am their flag

     I was rolled in blood at Franklin; I was stiff with ice at Nashville. Many good
     men bade me farewellat Sayler's Creek. When the end came at Appomattox, when the
     last Johnny Reb left Durham Satation, many of them carried fragments  of my
     fabric hidden on their bodies.

     I am their flag

     In the hard years of so-called "Reconstruction," in the difficulty and despair
     of years that slowly passed, the veterans, their wives and sons and daughters,
     they loved me. They kept alive the tales of valor and the legends of bravery.
     They passed them on to the grandchildren and they to their children, and so they
     were passed to you.

     I am their flag

     I have shrouded the bodies of heroes, I have been laved with the blood of martyrs,
     I am enshrined in the hearts of millions, living and dead. Salute me with
     affection and reverence. Keep undying devotion in your hearts. I am history. I am
     heritage, not hate. I am the inspiration of valor from the past.
     Look away Dixie Land !

     I am their flag