Kilcrease Art'y Flag

Joined
Sep 27, 2017
Location
Tallahassee, Florida
Sorry for the length in advance

I'm posting this here because I wanted to share my personal experience and also to help preserve something that means something to me. After I moved to Tallahassee I transformed my interest in the war into involvement. It started with a chance encounter, running into an SCV member and being invited to a meeting. Two years later I've truly expanded my knowledge of the war (and continue to expand with used books, archives, and reading online forums), gotten involved in living histories, re-enactments, memorial ceremonies, and other WBTS related activities.

Well when I first got a uniform I fell in love and wanted another, I decided I wanted to portray a local unit and began researching some that had formed in Leon County (where Tallahassee is). Soon enough I came across the Kilcrease Light Artillery. A small unit that participated at Natural Bridge which was formed in 1863 after Gamble's Artillery became large enough to form two units. It was commanded by F.L. Villepique, the secretary of state for Florida at the time. Later it would be commanded by Patrick Houstoun. The unit was called the Kilcrease after a local young, rich widow, Rhoda Kilcrease who had inherited her husband's estate and was committed to the southern cause. She helped fund the unit's cannons and according to local legend thus earned the namesake of the unit.

What I fell in love with after reading about was their flag. It was actually a two sided flag, the obverse of white silk with the reverse a rectangular pattern battle flag. The obverse had a wreath sewn into it with the words "Kilcrease Light Artillery 1863" inside the wreath and "Dieu Et Mon Droit" embroidered above it. Dieu Et Mon Droit (French for God and My Right) has been the motto of the royal family of England for centuries over the Lancaster, Tudor, Stuart, Hanoverian, and present Saxe-Coburg Gotha/Windsor families. The white silk was made from Ms. Rhoda Kilcrease's wedding dress.

I had to see this flag as few pictures of it existed online. I went to the Florida Archives where to my dismay a drawing of it in its original state was on display but not the real thing. I talked with the curator and he explained to me its terrible condition meant it would likely never be displayed again. But he pointed me to a wonderful local gentleman who has become my friend whose ancestors were in the Kilcrease and who has re-enacted artillery for years. This man actually handstitched his own replica which to my knowledge is the only replica ever made.

After meeting with him I took pictures of his flag and using those and the pictures of it in its current state I commissioned an online digital artist to create a rendering of it. A simple graphic of it like so many civil war flags have. I had it made into stickers which I distributed at an SCV meeting and give to close friends of mine who share an interest in the war. I'm putting this graphic of the Kilcrease flag here along with pictures of the originals so people interested can see and so that hopefully it may gain some little circulation on the internet. Like many Civil War enthusiasts I am a vexillologist who loves all things flags. I would hate to lose my computer and thus lose the only graphic of it. I hope you've enjoyed my novel and enjoy the flag. Please, its public domain so post it wherever. Below is the graphic, a picture of the flag in the Florida archives catalog, a picture of the flag draped over the tombstone of Patrick Houston who according to legend rushed into his house to save it when burned down after the war, and a picture of it being displayed by a local UDC chapter. You can see its deterioration in two of the photos as the saltire on the reverse is showing due to the aging of the widow Kilcrease's wedding dress. If Anyone is interested in talking about the Kilcrease Artillery or wishes to compare notes consider this a good forum for that, their story isn't one fully of glory and death and valor but rather the hardships and unpleasantry of war.
Thanks for reading,

Southern Volunteer.

Rectangular Kilcrease Flag (2).jpg
Kilcrease Museum Flag.jpg
Patrick Houston Funeral.jpg
UDC Flag.jpg
 
If anyone's interested here is a picture of the replica Kilcrease flag, if you look you can see the battle flag reverse. It's a beautiful flag when flying due to the two sided nature of it. Whenever he goes to a living history its always there and always complimented. It's flown at countless re-enactments of Natural Bridge and various events around the capital including in the 2017 Veteran's Day Parade down Monroe Street in Tallahassee.
 

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