State Flag
South Carolina’s blue flag with its white crescent moon rising above the white palmetto tree is simple in design but profoundly symbolic of a long history. Born for practicality, South Carolina’s first state flag was a signal device used in the opening days of the Revolutionary War. In 1776 the Council of Safety ordered Colonel William Moultrie to produce a signal flag and supplied blue cloth for that purpose. Moultrie used the silver crescent worn on his troop’s hats, placing this device in the upper-corner flagstaff side on the blue cloth.
This flag signaled victory to Charleston following Moultrie’s repulse of the British fleet from the hastily erected palmetto log fort on Sullivan’s Island. The palmetto tree immediately became a popular symbol. Though not incorporated into the flag during the Revolution, the palmetto tree did become part of the new state seal, firmly establishing it as a state emblem.
The Palmetto Regiment, South Carolina’s volunteer unit raised for Mexican War duty in 1846, carried a banner of blue. These colors were the first American banners to be raised over Mexico City upon its capture. After the war, a medal presented to the regimental veterans clearly depicted this flag with a palmetto tree in the center of an oval.
In December 1860, when South Carolina seceded from the Union, Representative Plowden C. J. Weston called for the appointment of a joint committee to devise a South Carolina national flag or ensign. Exactly one month later the committee introduced a resolution creating a white flag with a green palmetto tree in the center and a blue union with a white crescent. Representative Robert Barnwell Rhett, Jr., amended the resolution to read “the National Flag or Ensign of South Carolina shall be blue with a white palmetto tree upright thereon, and a white crescent in the upper corner.” Rhett reasoned that the colonial flag of blue with a white crescent and the white palmetto tree addition created a simple, beautiful flag. Not all of the legislators agreed with Rhett, however, and for seven days debate occurred in the House, the Senate, and the newspapers. Finally, on January 28, 1861, Rhett’s design was approved, and the blue flag with a white palmetto tree centered and a white crescent with horns pointing upward in the corner became the official state flag. In April, when Fort Sumter was taken, this flag flew beside the flag of the Confederacy.
In 1869 the Reconstruction government raised the flag issue again. A resolution passed by the General Assembly provided that a United States flag and the 1861 state flag would wave over the State House. Thirty years later the legislature hotly debated the proposal of changing the flag’s color from blue to purple to symbolize the blue flag being soaked with gallant South Carolina red blood. This gesture to honor the Confederate dead and the “Lost Cause” was overwhelmingly defeated; the flag remained blue.
In 1906 Senator Benjamin R. Tillman suggested that the state’s coat of arms be incorporated with two shields leaning against the palmetto tree’s base. Alexander Salley, secretary of the Historical Commission, quickly pointed out that the flag adhered to statutory law. Following the statutes, Salley and Governor Martin F. Ansel produced a lovely state flag in honor of President William Howard Taft’s 1909 visit to the state. This effort spurred the passage of a 1910 General Assembly act providing for the display of the flag over public buildings. Clemson College was directed to manufacture the flags as prescribed by an 1861 General Assembly resolution. The act also stipulated that the secretary of the Historical Commission approve the design, so Salley carefully supervised every detail, even selecting the shade of blue. The only major change made was to place the crescent closer to the flagstaff with the horns turned to the staff rather than upward.
Manufactured by commercial firms in the twenty-first century, the state flag has changed little since 1910. With its simple design and long history, the flag has been an outstanding representation of SouthCarolina.
Wates, Wylma A. A Flag Worthy of Your State and People: The History of the South Carolina State Flag. 2d ed. Columbia: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, 1996.
