The Flag tells its own story

Examining the flag as an artifact would seem to contradict Louis Toomer Moore’s conclusion that this flag was at a meeting on February 1, 1861. 

Counting Stars

The official U.S. flag had 33 stars when South Carolina seceded from the United States on December 20, 1860.  

On February 8, 1861, six states signed a provisional constitution for the Confederate States of America, and by February 18, 1861 Jefferson Davis was President of the Confederate States of America.  By the time the Confederate States created a flag, a seventh state had joined the confederacy, so the flag had seven stars, one to represent each state.

National flag of the Southern Confederacy; Detail from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, March 30, 1861, p. 292

National flag of the Southern Confederacy; Detail from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, March 30, 1861, p. 292

The stars for those 7 states remained on the U.S. flag, reflecting the Union position that states could not secede.

And yet, Cape Fear Museum's U.S. flag has 34 stars.

On January 29, 1861, Kansas became the 34^th state of the Union. The Wilmington Daily Herald noted on that day that the Senate had passed the Kansas Bill and reported two days later, on January 31, that the president signed it.

So the Union was made up of 34 states on February 1, 1861.  But the 34 star flag became the official U.S. flag on July 4, 1861, months after North Carolina seceded from the Union.  (It remained the official flag until July 4, 1863, until West Virginia became a state.)

It therefore seems unlikely (although I guess technically possible) that Mr. Covell would have had a 34 star flag for sale in his store on February 1, 1861, the day after Kansas became a state.  

And our flag's construction suggest that even if it were feasible to add a star to an existing flag over night, our flag was not modified.  The the position of the stars on the flag as well as the condition of the material of the stars suggest that they were all made and attached at the same time.   The fact that the row with 6 stars are evenly spaced, and so are the other rows seems to provide additional proof that they were all sewn on at the same time.  The state of the color and fabric of the stars does as well.

That said, since the CFM flag is handmade, it could easily have been produced between January 29^th and April/May when it seems Covell left Wilmington.  And even though the flag was not official until months after North Carolina succeeded from the United States, 34 star flags did fly before that official date. 

Still, there was no mention of Covell or his flag in the two local papers, so it cannot be independently placed in town. 

And, as the 34 star flag was the flag of the U.S. until July 4, 1863, it is technically possible (albeit rather unlikely) that Covell purchased the flag in Rhode Island and misremembered having it with him in North Carolina.  

Even though it is not possible to definitively confirm that Covell flag was in Wilmington in the run up to North Carolina’s exit from the United States, the circumstantial evidence seems to strongly suggest that it was.  

There is no obvious reason that Mr. Covell would have made up the story – a Northern Civil War era U.S. flag surely would have been as valuable a family memento to a Rhode Island merchant as one with a Southern history.  (Although as a counter argument, maybe it makes a more exciting family story to have him spiriting the flag off north….)    

Much of the circumstantial evidence fits the family lore– William K. Covell, Jr. was a ship’s chandler, and flags were very much a part of the maritime world so he would have had flags at his shop, or had access to a flag maker who could provide them to him. Newspaper accounts show pro Union members of the community did fly U.S. flags at meetings, so it seems reasonable that someone could have asked Covell to bring one to a meeting. 

By the time he left Wilmington, flags were freighted with symbolic meaning on both sides of the divide.  These sheet music covers give you a sense of  how flags had become to mean more than the sum of their stitches. (and you can look at my older blog for more on that, too....Civil War Redux). 

Courtesy of Library of Congress

Courtesy of Library of Congress

Image of sheet music courtesy of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University

Image of sheet music courtesy of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University

 And since William K. Covell identified with the North, he would likely have taken a flag back North to “protect” it from the Secessionists.  

Taking all this together, it’s not hard to believe that this flag was in Wilmington in the Spring of 1861, and that perhaps it made an appearance at an election rally as the vote for secession (end of February, 1861) was taking place.  Perhaps it came out at a later meeting to discuss the Peace Conference (early March).  Or perhaps it was just a part of Covell’s shop stock.  In the absence of definitive evidence, we will never really know.