It may be news to some outside of Dixie, but
there is a flag that has long been associated with people of Ulster ancestry in the New
World . This flag is of course the lone star flag, which
dates to 11 September, 1810. After the American Revolutionary War,
Spain regained control of the
territory of West
Florida , which is located today in the states of Mississippi , Alabama , and the
panhandle of Florida .
American and British settlers flooded into
this area and most of these families were of Irish, Scottish, and Welsh
ancestry, with the majority being of Ulster ancestry. These
people are described as Anglo-Celts by some historians, but usually they are
just called Scots-Irish. They resented rule from Spain, I suspect
knowing these people as I do, and being one of them myself, they resent heavy handed rule
from anyone or thing and a rebellion was short in coming.
the Bonnie
Blue Flag
On 11 September, 1810 a troop of West
Florida dragoons set out for Baton
Rouge (Red Stick) to join republican militia to launch an
attack on the Spanish fort there. The Scots-Irish forces overcame
the Spanish garrison in Baton Rouge and unfurled
the flag of the Republic of West
Florida . Alas, politics being what they
are, the Republic was only to exist for 90 days before the growing
United
States gobbled it up.
The flag was a single white star on a blue
field. The flag unfurled in 1810 was made by Melissa Johnson, wife
of Major Isaac Johnson, the commander of the West Florida Dragoons.
The flag is called by two names commonly, the Bonnie Blue Flag and the
Lone Star Flag. It saw use in the 1820s and 1830s as the
Anglo-Celts pushed into
On January 9, 1861 the convention of the
People of Mississippi adopted an Ordinance of Secession. With this
announcement the Bonnie Blue flag was raised over the capitol building in
Jackson , Mississippi . Harry Macarthy was so
inspired that he wrote a song entitled "The Bonnie Blue Flag" which became the
second most popular patriotic song of the Ole Confederacy.
The Lone Star/Bonnie Blue flag has been in
constant use from 1810. You will frequently see it today on license plates on
cars and trucks and families fly the flag across the US South and beyond.
The Bonnie Blue flag today is as popular as ever and still conveys the
same spirit as the original lone star flag and it is part of our Anglo-Celtic.
Barry R McCain
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