UCVRelics
Brevet Brigadier General
Forum Host
Gold Patron
Regtl. Quartermaster Shiloh 2020
Asst. Regtl. Quartermaster Antietam 2021
Regtl. Quartermaster Stones River / Franklin 2022
- Joined
- May 7, 2016
- Location
- Alabama
Came across this flag today in the Alabama Archives. The caption on it reads Flag of the Young Men's Secession Association of Mobile 1861. I have never heard of this organization. After a little digging a very interesting story emerged. I would still like to know more about the association.
Fort Morgan’s historians recently unraveled another local mystery – the identity of the flag that was first to fly over the fort in 1861. It was that of the Young Men’s Secession Association, a group of professional men who were in favor of secession and created their own association to push for that move.
When the first regiment came to Fort Morgan, the unit carried its own flag as well as that of the association’s. It was the association’s flag the soldiers hoisted up the flag pole for the first two weeks after they arrived.
That flag was replaced with the flag of the Montgomery Rifles, a militia unit from Montgomery. Alabama didn’t have a state flag in 1861 so military units used their own early in the war. Eventually the first confederate flag was put into use in March, 1861.
Fort Morgan’s historians recently unraveled another local mystery – the identity of the flag that was first to fly over the fort in 1861. It was that of the Young Men’s Secession Association, a group of professional men who were in favor of secession and created their own association to push for that move.
When the first regiment came to Fort Morgan, the unit carried its own flag as well as that of the association’s. It was the association’s flag the soldiers hoisted up the flag pole for the first two weeks after they arrived.
That flag was replaced with the flag of the Montgomery Rifles, a militia unit from Montgomery. Alabama didn’t have a state flag in 1861 so military units used their own early in the war. Eventually the first confederate flag was put into use in March, 1861.
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