Georgia Flags Prior to 1879 (U.S.)

Last modified: 2004-12-22 by rick wyatt
Keywords: georgia | rattlesnake |
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• Flags prior to 1879
• Colonial flag
• Lone Red Star flag (U.S. Arsenal, Augusta)
• Flag reports from the Secession Period

See also:

• Flags that have flown over Georgia
• Georgia
• Georgia Flag 2001-2003
• Georgia Flags 1920-2001
• Georgia Flags 1879-1920
• Rattlesnake Flags
• United States of America
• States of the United States

Flags prior to 1879

by Dov Gutterman, 2 October 1998

by Rick Wyatt, 10 October 1998

Please note that these flags were never officially adopted by act of legislature. As such they appeared with the state coat of arms on fields of red, blue and even white! The first officially adopted flag for Georgia was well after the Civil War was over.
Greg Biggs, 5 October 1998

Georgia did not adopt officially any state flag in the Civil War according to the records of the state legislature. Their first oficially adopted flag for the state came in the late 1800's. Some Georgia units, mostly on the company level, used state flags as their first battle flags, but these were done by the flag makers that did them rather than as a consequence of action by the state government. I have been through the purchasing records of the state and they did not buy state flags for the troops.
Greg Biggs, 3 December 2001

Colonial Flag

by Paige Herring, 30 August 1998

There is very little information regarding Georgia's Revolutionary era flags. The only reference to the existence of a uniquely Georgian flag is a hypothetical re-creation based upon information acquired in Standards and Colors of the American Revolution [ric82]. The writer there stated that there was a blue military color captured by the British when Savannah surrendered in December of 1778.

This color has subsequently been lost to history. However, as Georgia favored flags of the rattlesnake variety, the re-creation of the color is not wholly impossible. This color, based on the assumptions of the author of the book, places the snake and motto "Dont Tread On Me" on the flag with the unit citation of the First Georgia Regiment in the canton. The proportion of the color is based on the standard forms of the day.

by Paige Herring, 30 August 1998

Lone Red Star Flag (U.S. Arsenal, Augusta)

by Peter Krembs

The Georgia flag in question (white with a red lone star) was only flown over the captured U.S. Arsenal in Augusta, GA, when GA State Troops