Photograph of Confederate veterans and daughter
27 March 2012Taft Family Papers #784, East Carolina Manuscript Collection
Source:
Staff Person: Dale Sauter
Description:
Today’s staff pick features an undated photograph (left to right) of Major Orren Randolph Smith, his daughter Jessica and John T. B. Hoover. Smith and Hoover were both Confederate veterans who fought in the Civil War. On the back of the photograph a statement is written that Smith created the “Stars and Bars” (the first official flag of the Confederacy), and that his daughter verified this in the 1940s. However, it is also believed that Nicola Marschall (a Prussian artist), inspired by the Austrian flag, first designed the Confederate flag. There became much conflict between the descendants of the two individuals regarding who was the first to design the flag. Nevertheless, Smith’s tombstone in Henderson, North Carolina bears the inscription “designer of the Stars and Bars”.
Posted by Dale Sauter under East Carolina Manuscript Collection, photographs and Tags: Civil War, Confederate States of America, early American history, Social Life