The Tragic Story of the Flat Rock Seven

At Flat Rock Cemetery in Mount Holly, North Carolina there are seven Southern Crosses of Honor and four grave stones honoring the memories of seven Confederate soldiers from Cleveland and Rutherford Counties in North Carolina. 

These men were returning home from the War following the surrender of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Courthouse on Sunday, April 9, 1865. They fought for years in the war at places like Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness & Spottsylvania Campaign, and the Siege of Petersburg, and survived only to tragically drown mere miles from their homes and families.

As the local story goes, when these seven former Johnny Rebs reached the Mecklenburg County side of the Catawba River they discovered that none of the ferries were operating due to the extremely high water and turbulence due to rainstorms. Such was their haste to return home to their families they failed to wait for the water to calm down and hired a local boy and his fishing boat to ferry them across. The boat was either swamped by floating debris, or capsized because of the overcrowding, sending everyone into the torrential waters. 

Of the seven men, only one -- Private Ancil Dycus -- was able to reach shore. But one of the other men in the water was his brother -- Private Joseph Dycus -- and he went back in to try to save his kinsmen, and the others. Sadly he too drowned while attempting to rescue them. 

It is believed that the men were buried in Gaston County near the site were they drowned. No evidence can be found to determine the exact location. These veterans grave makers and Southern Crosses of Honor have been erected to preserve their everlasting memories for future generations. 

Grave markers and Confederate Iron Crosses honoring seven
Confederate soldiers who died returning home from the War

This memorial stone set at the foot of the markers and crosses
tells in brief the story of the tragedy end of these seven lives.

Corporal Drury Dobbins Price
Co. F 34th NC Infantry CSA.

Private Ancil Newton Dycus
Co. B 34th NC Infantry CSA.

Private Joseph J. Dycus
Co. D 2nd NC Junior Reserves CSA

Private James Blanton
Co. B 34th NC Infantry CSA.

A. Greene -- CSA. RIP.

John Greene -- CSA. RIP.

John B. Owens -- CSA. RIP.

Flat Rock Cemetery -- named for a large flat rock adjacent to the cemetery --
is located on North Main Street (HWY 273) in Mount Holly, North Carolina.

"The righteous perish,
and no one ponders it in his heart;
devout men are taken away,
and no one understands
that the righteous are taken away
to be spared from evil.

Those who walk uprightly
enter into peace;
they find rest as they lie in death."

~ Isaiah 57:1-2 (NIV)

Deo Vindice!

UPDATE! 05-09-2020
Earlier this year members of the Stonewall Jackson Camp #23 Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) installed three new grave stones for the Greene brothers and Private Owens. A dedication service for the new markers took place on Saturday, May 9th in honor of Confederate Memorial Day. I was able to attend and my photos of the event can be seen HERE.

Thank you for the work you have done, gentlemen!

A Georgia Volunteer -- Poem

Dedicated to the everlasting memories of all
those Known But To God who wore the
hallowed gray of Dixie.

A Georgia Volunteer

By Mary Ashley Townsend

Far up the lonely mountain-side

My wandering footsteps led;

The moss lay thick beneath my feet,

The pine sighed overhead. 

The trace of a dismantled fort

Lay in the forest nave,

And in the shadow near my path

I saw a soldier's grave.

The bramble wrestled with the weed

Upon the lowly mound;

The simple head-board, rudely writ,

Had rotted to the ground;

I raised it with a reverent hand,

From dust its words to clear,

But time had blotted all but these--

"A Georgia Volunteer!"

I saw the toad and scaly snake
From tangled covert start, 
And hide themselves among the weeds
Above the dead man's heart;
But undisturbed, in sleep profound,
Unheeding, there he lay;
His coffin but the mountain soil,
His shroud Confederate gray.

I heard the Shenandoah roll
Along the vale below,
I saw the Alleghanies rise
Toward the realms of snow.
The 'Valley Campaign' rose to mind-
Its leader's name-and then
 I knew the sleeper had been one
Of Stonewall Jackson's men.

Yet whence he came, what lip shall say-
Whose tongue will ever tell
What desolated hearths and hearts
Have been because he fell?
What sad-eyed maiden braids her hair,
Her hair which he held dead?
One lock of which perchance lies with
The Georgia Volunteer!

What mother, with long watching eyes,
And white lips, cold and dumb,
Waits with appalling patience for 
Her darling boy to come?
Her boy! whose mountains grave swells up
But one of many a scar,
Cut on the face of our fair land,
By gory-handed war. 

What fights he fought, what wounds he wore,
Are all unknown to fame;
Remember, on his holy grave
There is not e'en a name!
That he fought well and bravely too,
And held his country dear,
We know, else he had never been
A Georgia volunteer. 

He sleeps-what need to question now
If he were wrong or right?
He knows, ere this, whose cause was just
In God the Father's sight. 
He wields no warlike weapons now,
returns no foeman's thrust-
Who but a coward would revile 
An honest soldier's dust?

Roll, Shenandoah, proudly roll,
Adown thy rocky glen,
Above thee lies the grave of one 
Of Stonewall Jackson's men.
Beneath the cedar and the pine,
In solitude austere.
Unknown, unnamed, forgotten, lies
A Georgia Volunteer!

This poem was written not long after the war’s end by Miss Mary Ashley Townsend (1836-1901), a northern-born American poet living in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. 

Miss Mary Ashley Townsend (1832 - 1901)

A Georgia Volunteer reflects another sad and tragic reality of the aftermath of the War Between The States (1861-1865). Far far too many young soldiers are buried today in Unknown graves across the United States, especially in the American Southland. In those graves lie the remains of someone's son, brother, husband, or sweetheart who died and never returned home. Someone who had loved ones who never knew the ultimate fate of their beloved child, sibling, or lover.  

It is in that memory of those who never returned home -- at least in this world -- that this blogger dedicates this post.

Y'all are not forgotten!

Deo Vindice! 

Anthropology Professor Makes Wrong Conclusions About The Confederate Flag -- But This Blogger Sets It Straight

Greeting my friends and fellow travelers!

On Sunday, April 23rd, a somewhat preachy and pretentious article appeared in The (Durham County, NC) Herald Sun written by Elon University Professor of Anthropology Tom Mould. 

The article, ironically titled: "In debating the Confederate flag, we're asking the wrong questions" Professor Mould continues to not only ask the wrong questions himself, but fills his arguments with factual errors as well as the usual logical fallacies that social "just us" regressives continue to use over and over ad nauseum. Clearly the subject over the so-called debate about the Confederate flag is not among his areas of expertise, as you will see. 

Luckily, this blogger is here to offer the proper corrections and the factual details that the dear professor either was ignorant of, or simply refused to add for fear of destroying his somewhat pretentious argument. 

As always this blogger's point-by-point response to this article will appear in Confederate Red. 

Enjoy.

In debating the Confederate flag, we're asking the wrong questions – Tom Mould
In responding to this debate, I will endeavor to set the record straight -- C.W. Roden: The Man Deniers Fear The Most

By Tom Mould

The tragedy in Charleston June 17, 2015, ripped open deep wounds, both new and old, not the least of which was debate over the Confederate flag. Point of correction: it was the Establishment Media using said tragedy to fire up a debate that the Left was already losing well before this.

Opponents Regressives and anti-Confederate heritage reactionaries wrongly paint the flag as a symbol of racism. Defenders boil the issue down into a catchy, proverb-sized sound bite: Heritage, not hate. Actually, Southern-Confederate heritage advocates do far more than just than spout off slogans. We live those words and teach the next generation to respect them and their fellow Southerners regardless of who they are. We show that the living heritage is a part of all Southern people, even those who are not Confederate descendants, and that it has a place now and in the future. Also all three words are capital: Heritage, Not Hate.

That’s good for a rally but not so good for understanding the issue, because it’s never been one or the other. It is both.​ Since I just pointed out that your simplistic view of "Defenders" is inaccurate, your point misses its mark. I do agree that in certain contexts the flag can be both however. I fear thought that will be were  our mutual agreement ends.

​That is the power – both terrible and beautiful – of symbols. Their meanings shift. Different time periods, different contexts, different people, different meanings. “Heritage or hate?” is the wrong question.​ True, it is not even the proper question at all. The actual question is which view deserves to endure: Heritage or hatred? Better yet, which one ultimately benefits Southern culture and all Southern people in the long run?

​Examining the ideology espoused by the flag’s designer is unproductive in understanding contemporary symbolic meanings if that history is widely unknown. True we could have a huge debate about that particular origin, but let's save that for another blog post, okay? When it comes to symbols, origins matter very little. I would disagree. I believe that knowing where you come from has considerable weight in where we are going, or choose to go moving forward. The Star of David was not originally Jewish, nor was the Ichthus or “Jesus Fish” originally Christian. The skull and crossbones were created by the Spanish to mark their cemeteries long before they represented poison and piracy.​ Yet none of those details diminishes in any way the proper use of those symbols today by the groups you mentioned.

​Symbols are often appropriated and, over time, can take on new meanings that erase their initial intent, so asking about original meanings is the wrong question, too.​ Again I would disagree for the reason stated before. Of course, I suspect that your reason for moving past this would be the damage those arguments does to your conclusions. Let's keep going and see if I am right, shall we?

​It is hardly novel to point out that the Confederate flag was not a widespread public symbol of Southern culture and heritage extending unabated from the Civil War to the present, but rather a re-discovered symbol used by Southern politicians who opposed Civil Rights and desegregation. Actually, the flag itself was widely used by the United Confederate Veterans themselves at their conventions, during Confederate Memorial Day and US Memorial Day parades where former Confederate soldiers and Southern-born US soldiers marched between the Spanish-American War (1898) to well into the 1950s. There are literally hundreds of period photographs that prove this point. Your premise is factually in error. The Confederate flag appeared on the South Carolina statehouse in 1962, not 1862 and on the Georgia flag in 1956, not 1856.​ And on the current flag of the State of Mississippi in 1894....oops, you forgot that one huh buddy? Guess that detail wasn't included in your article because it just didn't fit your paradigm. Tisk tisk.

​No American, black or white, who lived during this time was unaware of the battle for Civil Rights being waged. For many, their first glimpse of the Confederate flag was during rallies and protests, coupled with posters espousing hatred for all African-American men and women, and in political arenas where laws were passed again and again that limited the rights of people of color.​ Obviously that was not the only reason that flag existed in the South, nor was it the only flag flown wrongly in defiance of the struggle for equality:

Looks like Old Glory to me.

​These very public displays, splashed across the mass media, were impossible to ignore.​

​Recent polls suggest the negative interpretation of the flag has increased rather than decreased in the past few decades. Oh ho, this one I gotta see. A 1994 Louis Harris poll suggested that 68 percent of African-Americans were not offended by the Confederate flag. In 2011, a Pew Research Center Poll found the number had dropped to 55 percent.​ Polls of course are highly accurate, just ask President Hillary Clinton all about....OH! Riiiiiiight. LOL!

​In the South, that number was likely even lower, because just three years later, a Winthrop Poll reported only 27 percent of African Americans in South Carolina felt the flag should remain on top of the Statehouse.​ A poll asked in the wake of a tragedy and done in only ONE STATE rather than a national poll, and largely based on a false media narrative. Incidentally, you forgot this poll by CNN taken a week after the tragedy in Charleston:
 

Then again, maybe you failed to mention it on purpose.

​
There is no question that accused Charleston gunman Dylann Roof’s use wrongful and shameful misuse of the Confederate flag was as a symbol of racist hatred. Not even the flag’s staunchest supporter can argue otherwise.​ I don't profess to argue that point, but I did correct your misstatement.

​Nor is there any question that there are well-meaning young people in this country today who grew up with a Confederate flag in their homes or those of their grandparents, who see no evidence of racial hatred in their family. Declaring their interpretation of the flag invalid ignores how symbols operate. Truth! We do not need to label these families racist any more than we need to continue to allow the Confederate flag to fly in public spaces where its meaning has been so clearly articulated again and again as a symbol of racial hatred.​ Problem with that line of logic is that the US flag and many other historical American banners have also been wrongly misappropriated as symbols of things they were never intended to be. To make the argument that such misuse invalidated their public display invites politically correct regressive ciaos when it comes to who feels what way about which one, and which group needs to be pandered to.

​The question we should be asking – and that increasingly more and more of us are asking – is when does one meaning of a symbol become so powerful it drowns out other interpretations? The NAACP concluded that moment had arrived in 2000 when it began a boycott of South Carolina for flying the Confederate flag over the statehouse.​ Actually the NAACP concluded that in 1991 at their national convention when they passed an obscene resolution calling the flag an "odious blight upon the universe" and declaring war against any and all public displays. If you were unaware of that, you clearly are not a very good researcher. Or that you simply failed to learn the relevant facts when you decided to weigh in on this argument.

​The moment came much sooner for some African-American state legislators in South Carolina who began calling for its removal as early as the 1970s when I was growing up there. According to recent polls, for most Americans, the moment is now.​ We've already established that your poll information is largely meaningless.

​Yet while majority consensus is comforting, which again you have NOT fully established that cannot be the only standard for change, particularly when it comes to protecting minority populations.​ LOL sorry, but you can't play White Knight on this one, buddy. As far as "protecting" Black Southerners, you might wanna check out this link HERE. Your view that Black Southerners (or African-Americans as a whole) think as one mind on the subject is clearly defeated with photographic evidence to the contrary....and trust me, there is more where that came from on this blog.

​We must also consider the power of the symbol and the reactions it evokes. The sheer scope and depth of hatred toward African Americans perpetrated under the waving of the Confederate flag cannot be lined up against fond memorialization by a racial majority. Now it is you who makes the wrong comparison. It is not lining hatred up against heritage, it is lining up the continued wrongful acceptance of a regressive, pro-white supremacist viewpoint; against an increasingly multicultural Southern identity and living Confederate heritage accepted increasingly by more and more people of all colors and creeds. Thankfully, there are many other ways to memorialize and symbolize one’s region, one’s ancestors, and one’s history that have not been co-opted by those spouting racial hatred.​ There are, but simply surrendering the flag to the racists to continue misusing it and accepting that outcome rather than fighting hard against that wrongful viewpoint is the act of a moral coward.

​Symbols are constantly created anew and imbued with new meaning. We Southerners need to imbue new symbols, and ensure that our actions and beliefs truly reflect the values of equality, courage, and unity for which we say we stand.​ Ironically, as I have shown on this blog many time over: HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE (and those are just a few examples mind you) more and more people of all colors and creeds are rejecting the regressive view of that flag and embracing it proudly as the living symbol of Southern identity for all.
That is kinda the point you made earlier isn't it? That despite the origins and past uses of some symbols, new generations bring new meaning to said symbols. By your own words, Mr. Mould, you have made the case FOR those of us who fight for the display of the Southland's banner.

​Heritage or hate misses the point. It’s not about how many ways we can interpret a symbol. When one of those ways is so hurtful to so many people, it can no longer be tolerated.​ Accepting that harm by accepting the continued misuse of that flag while rejecting those honorable Southerners that are taking the harder, but more rewarding route of fighting back; well sir, that is far more intolerable. Indeed, it is as much an act of hatred as waving that flag and calling someone a racial slur in the first place.
Indeed, perhaps it is even worse.

There you have it folks, another regressive stooge taken to town by yours truly. If you have any questions, comments, or would like to add anything to this response post; then please leave a comment below. 

As always thank you for reading and I hope y'all learned something important. You don't need to take my word for the facts I have laid out above. Do your own research and learn the truth for yourselves. All I hope I have done -- aside from amusing myself at the expense of another regressive hater -- is help y'all begin to think objectively. Oh and I also hope y'all were amused by my little take-down of ignorance disguised as academia. 

Have a wonderful day, and y'all come back now, ya hear?

Read more here: http://www.heraldsun.com/opinion/article145536169.html#storylink=cpy

The People's Free Library of South Carolina -- A Historic Landmark

The People's Free Library of South Carolina.

One of the most interesting landmarks in Chester County can be found a few miles from my home in Lowrys, South Carolina. 

The People's Free Library of South Carolina was built in 1903 by a seasonal visitor to the area, Dr. Delano Fitzgerald, a Baltimore pharmacist, who frequented Chester County during the winter months in order to capitalize on the area's rich hunting grounds. Dr. Fitzgerald wished to contribute something meaningful to the town where he spent many pleasant winter months and the local people of the community who showed him such respect and hospitality. 

When Dr. Fitzgerald expressed interest in establishing a library in the community, a local resident, Mr. J.S. Guy donated a lot for its construction. He opened the library in 1904, which became the first free library in Chester County. 

The small, single room building was built and furnished completely with tables, chairs, a wood stove, and book shelves complete with a collection of approximately 1,381 books and works of popular literature for the time. Dr. Fitzgerald himself employed a year-round library staff of three trustees, supplied leading magazine periodicals, and bore all the expenses of the small library's operation. 

To make the books more widely available to people in the county, ten wooden book boxes were constructed which held several dozen books, which were distributed by a horse or mule-drawn wagon once a month to local homes and schools in York and Chester Counties between 1904 - 1909. This early rural "traveling library service" was one of the first bookmobile-type systems in the country. 

The People's Free Library continued to make a significant contribution to the cultural and intellectual development of Lowrys and the surrounding areas from between 1904 - 1954 and continues to serve as a museum and community landmark. 

Today five of the original book boxes remain in the building itself, four are displayed in the Chester County Library, and one is kept in the South Carolina State Library in Columbia.  

The library closed in 1924, but reopened in 1932 as a branch of the Chester County Library system. It would close again permanently as a library in 1954. The building was then donated to the nearby Zion Presbyterian Church, which restored it in 1976 and keeps the small building in good repair as a museum, though it is not open to the public.

The People's Free Library of South Carolina was officially listed on the National Registry of Historic Places on October 29, 1982.

The People's Free Library sits on the property adjacent to the
Zion Presbyterian Church in Lowrys, SC.

The historic building as seen from the front.

The interior photo of the building taken from the front left window.

The registration form for the National Registry of Historic Places submitted to the US Department of the Interior can be seen HERE. 

I hope y'all enjoyed this story about this important cultural landmark in my home county. 

As always y'all have a great Dixie day!

Union Soldier's Graves in Rose Hill Cemetery

The entrance to Rose Hill Cemetery in downtown York, SC.

Located in the Southeastern corner of Rose Hill Cemetery in downtown York, South Carolina, are eight graves that seem to be noticeably set apart from the others beneath a tall tree. Its as if the occupants of those graves were buried away from the rest due to some religious objection, or were the victims of some vile and incurable 19th century disease. 

These eight lonely graves belong to Union soldiers. Members of two units of US troops who occupied York County and the surrounding area during the Reconstruction Era (1865 - 1877) who died during that time due to illness, or possibly violence from local resistance to federal enforcement of Radical Reconstruction policies that barred ex-Confederates from voting, holding office, or meeting in groups -- including funerals and church services -- without federal soldiers present.

Some of these men, members of Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer's 7th US Cavalry under the command of Major Lewis Merrill, were present in York County in 1871 during the height of violent activities involving the first Ku Klux Klan. Their efforts led largely to the suppression of violence against former slaves and those who worked to ensure their equal treatment under the law.  

Eight Union soldiers, members of the local occupation forces
who died during the Reconstruction Era.

No matter their reason for being in York County at that particular time, these eight men sadly died in another State far from their homes and families who never saw them again. No matter if they are a Confederate soldier from Georgia buried in Pennsylvania, or a young Union man from Maine who died of pneumonia in South Carolina. They deserve to be remembered and respected for their individual lives as any other American veteran of the War Between the States (1861 - 1865) who fell far from home. 

For that reason this blogger honors them by placing the flags they served under at their graves and present to you readers the names of these Union soldiers. 

Private Thos Quinton
Co. C 18th US Infantry

Private G.H. Whitemore
Co. L 7th US Cavalry

Private Samuel Brown
Co. L 7th US Cavalry

Private Patrick Walsh
Co. C 18th US Infantry

Private Adolphus Cash
Co. D 7th US Cavalry

Private G.W. Windsor
Co. C 18th US Infantry

Private Jno Shea
Co. C 18th US Infantry

Sergeant Patrick Garr
Co. C 18th US Infantry

 We've been fighting today on the old camp ground,

Many are lying near;

Some are dead, and some are dying,

Many are in tears.

Many are the hearts that are weary tonight,

Wishing for the war to cease; 

Many are the hearts look for the right, 

To see the dawn of peace. 

~ "Tenting on the Old Campground" 

A popular Union Civil War song.

As always I hope you enjoyed this blog post. Have a wonderful Dixie day, and y'all come back now, ya hear?

Night Sky Photography - 04-11-2017 - Full Moon, Jupiter & Spica In Eastern Sky

As I mentioned in my last blog post, the first full moon of spring 2017 celebrated the change of seasons by pairing up with our solar system's largest neighbor, Jupiter, after it rose in the eastern sky. 

Tonight I was able to get a really good shot of the full moon with Jupiter moving farther away. Luna was in turn joined by Spica, the brightest star of the constellation Virgo, and the 16th brightest star in the night sky. 

Jupiter will remain in the vicinity of Spica for much of 2017. 

Once again I hope you enjoyed my planetary photography and, as always, keep looking to the skies.

Night Sky Photography - 04-10-2017 - Easter Full Moon & Jupiter

Tonight and tomorrow -- April 10th & 11th -- the first full moon of spring 2017 arrives in the Northern Hemisphere, the same evening the first day of the Jewish holiday Passover. Tonight's full moon also comes the week before Easter Sunday on April 16, 2017. 

In the Northern Hemisphere, we have several names for the first full moon of springtime: the Pink Moon (named after celebrating the return of certain species of wild flowers), the Sprouting Grass Moon, Egg Moon, or the Easter Moon. 

Joining Luna in her full glory on the night of April 10th is Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, appearing as a very bright star in just to the right of the first springtime full moon. 

I took the following photos just as Luna and Jupiter rose above the treetops. The first two were through the branches of a tree. The third in the clearing, and the fourth a close up.

I hope y'all enjoyed my planetary photographs. Have a good evening and, as always, keep your eyes to the skies.

The Conquered Banner & Reply To The Conquered Banner -- Poems

Furling The Flag (1871) by Austrian artist Richard Norris Brooke.
Brooke painted this while teaching at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, VA.

The Conquered Banner

 By Father Abram Joseph Ryan

Furl that Banner, for 'tis weary;

Round its staff 'tis drooping dreary;

Furl it, fold it--it is best; 

For there's not a man to wave it, 

And there's not a sword to save it,

And there's not one left to lave it

In the blood which heroes gave it; 

And its foes now scorn and brave it;

Furl it, hide it---let it rest!

Take that banner down! 'tis tattered;

Broken is its staff and shattered;

And the valiant hosts are scattered, 

Over whom it floated high.

Oh, 'tis hard for us to fold it,

Hard to think there's none to hold it,

Hard that those who once unrolled it

Must now furl it with a sigh!

Furl that banner--furl it sadly;

Once ten thousands hailed it gladly,

And ten thousands wildly, madly, 

Swore it would forever wave --

Swore that foeman's sword should never

Hearts like theirs entwined dissever, 

Till that flag should float forever

O'er their freedom or their grave!

Furl it! for the hands that grasped it, 

And the hearts that fondly clasped it,

Cold and dead are lying low;

And that Banner--it is trailing,

While around it sounds the wailing

Of its people in their woe.

For though conquered, they adore it--

Love the cold, dead hands that bore it!

Weep for those who fell before it!

Pardon those who trailed and tore it!

But, oh, wildly they deplore it,

Now who furl and fold it so!

Furl that Banner! True, 'tis gory, 

Yet 'tis wreathed around with glory,

And 'twill live in song and story

Though its folds are in the dust!

For its fame on brightest pages,

Penned by poets and by sages, 

Shall go sounding down the ages--

Furl its folds though now we must. 

Furl that Banner, softly, slowly; 

Treat it gently--it is holy, 

For it droops above the dead;

Tough it not--unfolded it never,  

let it droop there, furled forever,

For its people's hopes are fled.

This poem was first published by Father Abraham Joseph Ryan, "Poet-Priest of the South" in the New York Freeman, a pro-Confederate Roman Catholic newspaper on Saturday, June 24, 1865, two months after the surrenders of Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and Johnston's Confederate Army of Tennessee in April of the same year. The poem was later published in the first issue of the Confederate Veteran in 1893. 

The Conquered Banner became one of the best known poems of the post-war American Southland, and was memorized and recited by at least two generations of Southern schoolchildren during the height of its popularity between 1890 - 1920. 

When he wrote The Conquered Banner, Father Ryan, like many Confederate officers -- including General Robert E. Lee -- believed that no matter how noble the defense of Southern independence and revered the Confederate cause had been, the South's defeat in April of 1865 meant the final defeat of the Confederate government. Father Ryan's poem is largely a memorial to the fallen Confederate soldier and his defeated cause of self-determination.

Some modern-day historians argue that this also meant that his symbolic view that the Confederate flag be "furled forever" alluded to the belief that the battle flag of the Confederate soldier has no more use in modern society. 

The counter-argument to this logic could reasonably be made that Father Ryan did not specify in The Conquered Banner exactly which Confederate flag was referenced. Most images associated with this poem show the Confederate 2nd National colors "The Stainless Banner" rather than the square battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, or the rectangular battle flag of the Army of Tennessee used in the later half of the War Between the States.  

Popular cover for The Conquered Banner (1865)
depicting the tattered Confederate 2nd National Flag
"Stainless Banner" (May 1863 - March 1865).

The fact that Father Ryan himself continued to show reverence for the fallen Confederate soldier (his own brother had been killed wearing the Confederate gray) and the soldier's flag through his poetry long after the War also disproves the narrative of modern-day historians that Ryan wanted the Confederate battle flag to remain forever furled. 

The Conquered Banner also inspired a  British poet and Confederate sympathizer, Sir Henry Houghton (1809 - 1885), to pen A Reply to the Conquered Banner feeling that Father Ryan's poem was too defeatist. This is the full text of that poem and its message to the war ravaged Southland: 

Gallant nation, foiled by numbers! 

Say not that your hopes are fled;

Keep that glorious flag which slumbers,

One day to avenge your dead.

Keep it, widowed, sonless mothers!

Keep it, sisters, mourning brothers!

Furl it now, but keep it still--

Think not that its work is done.

Keep it till your children take it,
Once again to hall and make it,

All their sires have bled and fought for;

All their noble hearts have sought for--

Bled and fought for all alone!

All alone! ay, shame the story!

Millions here deplore the stain;

Shame, alas! for England's glory,

Freedom called, and called in vain!

Furl that banner, sadly, slowly,

Treat it gently, for 'tis holy;

Till that day--yes, furl it sadly;

Then once more unfurl it gladly--

Conquered banner! keep it still!

The Conquered Banner was especially popular in Dixie at the turn of the century when the US government formally returned the captured and surrendered battle flags to the Southern States in 1905, and at reunions of the United Confederate Veterans (UCV) where Confederate battle flags flew, or were displayed respectfully alongside the flag of the United States of America with dueling but equal sense of patriotism for country and for the Southland of their birth. 

"GATHER the sacred dust of the warriors tried and true, 
Who bore the flag of our People's trust
And fell in a cause, though lost still just
And died for me and you."
~Father Abram Joseph Ryan
(February 5, 1838 – April 22, 1886)

Deo Vindice!