Confederate flag remnant ends journey

Flag canton comes home to EC

By Diana Mazzella
Staff Writer

Monday, November 02, 2009

When Confederate troops on Roanoke Island surrendered to the Union army in February 1862, the flag used by one of the island units, the State Guards of Pasquotank, was never surrendered.

Unknown to the Union captors, the flag had been hidden inside the lining of an overcoat worn by Pvt. William Crawford Dawson Sr. of Elizabeth City.

On Monday, the remaining section of that flag — the canton — was put on display at Museum of the Albemarle.

According to family history, Dawson rescued the flag from a fallen flag-bearer during the battle. He concealed the banner while he was kept in a prisoner of war camp in Currituck County for two weeks. Then, when released on parole at the Elizabeth City docks, he transferred the flag to his future wife Nannie White. She hid it inside a feather bed until the end of the war.

The flag remained in the Dawson family’s keeping until 1910 when W.C. Dawson Jr. loaned the flag’s remaining blue silk corner piece, the canton, to the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh. There it remained, unpreserved — glued to cardboard and uncovered — until it was discovered during the museum’s move in 1993.

Peter Rascoe, 52, Chowan County manager and a descendant of Dawson, said his dream when the flag was recovered was that it could be restored and put on display in Dawson’s hometown.

On Monday, the family gathered at Museum of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City to mark the first public display of the flag remnant.

“Since 1993 that was my dream to have it conserved and brought back to Museum of the Albemarle so that the families of these men who served as a company, who still live here ... could see it,” Rascoe said.

The silk square is on display in the Civil War section of the “Our Story” exhibit at MOA. It rests in a plastic case between a homespun dress of the period and the military coat of Brig. Gen. James G. Martin. Historians believe that Martin’s sister Sophie made the flag that included the preserved canton.

Rascoe said the original flag consisted of one large white stripe between two red stripes with the blue square in the corner. On the blue square were seven gold stars — representing the seven Confederate States.

The canton itself — the only remaining part — was created in Baltimore using oil paints on silk. The square of blue silk has a colorful painting of the state seal . Above the seal are the words, “State Guards,” and below the seal is the Latin phrase “Palmam qui meruit, ferat” which translates to “Let him who has won it bear the palm.”

According to Dawson’s granddaughter Margaret Dawson Owens, all but one of the stars on the flag were kept by the children in the family. The last star was sent to the museum.

The flag was designed for the State Guards of Pasquotank, also known as Company L of the 17th regiment (1st Organization) of the North Carolina Troops in the Confederate Army. The regiment, consisting of about 125 men, defended Fort Bartow of Roanoke Island before it was captured by Union troops who then sailed up the Pasquotank River and engaged Confederate troops in the naval battle of Elizabeth City.

Company L was commanded by Capt. John Bartlett Fearing, who is buried at the Episcopal Cemetery behind the museum. Aside from Dawson, other notables in the company included the future state governor Thomas Jarvis, Pasquotank County Clerk of Court William E. Vaughan and Gilbert Elliott, who was to build the ironclad ram, CSS Albemarle.

Elizabeth City resident Betsy Dawson, 58, a cousin of Rascoe and descendant of Dawson, said the display is not just for Dawson’s numerous relatives.

“It’s for the families of the whole regiment,” she said.

She said it was “great” to see a portion of her family history preserved.

“I’m kind of a Civil War buff, so I think it’s really fascinating,” she said. “Any old artifact or heirloom that you can come across that you can deem as being authentic I think is something worthwhile.”

Civil War history isn’t just a family affair, she said. It also has national importance.