Thursday, August 4, 2016

South Carolina Flag And Its History

By Ned Sons


The official South Carolina Flag was adopted in the year 1861 by the state. According to South Carolina Flag history, the designer of the flag was Colonel William Moultrie.

Ten years later in 1775, Colonel William Moultrie was asked by the South Carolina Revolutionary Council of Safety to design a banner for the use of South Carolina State Troops. Colonel Moultrie chose a simple and direct design that displayed the crescent (new moon)on a blue field. The new flag was the same blue color of the soldier's uniforms and the silver crescent echoed the symbol that the soldiers wore on the front of their caps.

The state was the 8th to gain admission to the Union in 1788 and also one of the 13 original colonies. To add more meaning to the South Carolina Flag, certain modifications were made to the original design, which has come down to the people through the ages. The South Carolina Flag is made of a blue field, in the center of which, there are a palmetto tree and a white crescent moon in the upper left corner of the flag.

A Palmetto tree was added and centered on the blue field. The Palmetto, the South Carolina State Tree, had been attributed as instrumental in Colonel Moultrie's defense of Sullivan's Island against an attack by British warships in June 1776. Cannonballs fired at the fort from the British ships could not destroy the walls of the fort which were built of Palmetto logs. Instead, the cannonballs simply sank into the soft, tough Palmetto wood.

On January 26, 1861, following secession from the Union, the South Carolina legislature adopted a blue flag with a white crescent at the hoist and a white oval and golden palmetto in the center. Two days later the palmetto was changed to white and the oval was omitted. That flag has continued to represent the state ever since.

There is a barrage of cheap and inferior South Carolina flags being imported and sold, that do not comply with the flag statute. This is bad for a number of reasons. Imported flags are cheaply made and more importantly, the designs, materials, colors, and methods of printing do not compare well with the better quality, longer-lasting, and correctly designed flags made by American manufacturers. The Flag Company Inc specialized in flag designs offered a special edition of decals and flags to memorize the history of South Carolina flag for the future.




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