Charles County, Maryland (U.S.)

Last modified: 2004-12-30 by rick wyatt
Keywords: charles county | maryland |
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by Phil Nelson, 10 April 2002

See also:

• State of Maryland

Charles County is one of the three counties that constitute southern Maryland (the others being Calvert and St. Mary's Counties). It is located southeast of Washington DC and adjacent to Prince George's County between the Potomac and Patuxent Rivers. The northern end of the county is mostly a bedroom community for commuters in the metropolitan area, the central and southern portions are generally rural. The town of Indian Head is home to one of the bases of the Naval Surface Weapons Center. Bryantown in Charles County was the home of Dr. Samuel Mudd, who was convicted as a co-conspirator in the assassination of President Lincoln after having set the broken ankle of John Wilkes Booth.

The flag is basically the county seal on a bordered yellow field. As the flag may not be 100% accurate some notes that will hopefully fuel discussion and any potential corrections:

1. The flag is based upon a poor quality photograph of it being presented to a southern Maryland youth group. The detail is not the best. For instance, the color of the border appears deep blue in some monitors and black in others. I opted for a deep blue in the GIF.
2. The font used for the lettering "Charles Covnty" (the olde English spelling) is not clear enough to say that the one I used is precise.
3. The county seal shows the county name and date of erection in black on the blue borders running up the left and down the right sides. However, as the date of erection is in white on the photograph I have (and black in the seal), and the presence of the name cannot be determined, I have concluded (perhaps incorrectly) that the name may be omitted from the seal on the flag, which probably is the reason for the lettering below the seal.