[VAcourier] Wake up call to arms- Richmond TD article on flag

Tue Sep 11 08:24:55 EDT 2007

  _____  

<http://ads.mgnetwork.com/RealMedia/ads/click_nx.ads/inrich.com/news/index.s
html at Top?x> 
A new Confederate-flag fight
Tuesday, Sep 11, 2007 - 12:09 AM Updated: 01:32 AM
By JEFF E. SCHAPIRO
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Aflap over a Confederate flag is breaking out at the Virginia Capitol.

The dispute isn't over whether to display a Confederate flag -- it's over
which Confederate flag to display.

Despite the concerns of Confederate-heritage enthusiasts, officials are not
returning a battle flag -- the "Stars and Bars" -- to the Old House Chamber,
where it stood for years a short distance from the spot where Gen. Robert E.
Lee accepted command of Virginia's armed forces at the beginning of the
Civil War in April 1861.

General Assembly officials, looking to the approaching 150th anniversary
commemoration of the start of the Civil War, say their decision is rooted in
historical accuracy, not political correctness.

So, another Confederate flag -- the "second national flag," which is white
and features a Stars and Bars canton in the upper-left corner -- will be put
on display in the newly constructed Capitol annex, added as part of $105
million restoration of the Thomas Jefferson-designed statehouse.

That flag, officials say, is more closely associated with Richmond because
it was adopted in 1863, when the Confederate Congress met here. Richmond was
the second seat of the rebel government, after Montgomery, Ala., and before
Danville, the final capital in the closing days of the war.

A reproduction of the second national flag -- referred to as such because it
was among three adopted by the Confederate Congress -- will appear with
likenesses of others that have flown over the Capitol since it was completed
more than 200 years ago.

They will include versions of the American flag -- the "Stars and Stripes"
-- and flank the restored 11-foot-by-22-foot Virginia flag that flew over
the Capitol when Richmond fell to the Union army in April 1865. The Virginia
flag is blue and features a bare-breasted Roman goddess, Virtus, standing
over a fallen man, representative of tyranny.

If the battle flag, which became a symbol of Southern defiance to
desegregation in the 1950s and 1960s, is being replaced "for political
correctness, it's a problem," said Fred D. Taylor of Suffolk, a third-year
law student and member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Taylor yesterday
suggested that the state display all three Confederate national flags.

The Stars and Bars, Taylor said, is known as the "soldiers' flag" and was
synonymous with the Army of Northern Virginia, the name later given to the
Lee-led force. Taylor said the Stars and Bars was never sanctioned by the
Confederate Congress.

The battle flag stood in the Old House Chamber until the renovation of the
Capitol began nearly two years ago.

In a letter to Speaker William J. Howell, R-Stafford, House Clerk Bruce F.
Jamerson said research did not reveal when the flag first appeared in the
Old House Chamber, though it turned up in a 1981 photograph of the room,
along with an American flag, two Virginia flags and a flag of the U.S.
Military Academy.

The chamber became a shrine to Lee during the 1926-30 administration of Gov.
Harry F. Byrd Sr., who procured a bronze statute of the general. The statue
was a focal point of a room that Byrd said should be in "the condition in
which it was at the time General Lee entered its doors" to accept command of
a rebel army.

Howell, in a memorandum last week to Jamerson, said the second national flag
should be displayed for several reasons.

Among them: That it is a flag that was adopted by the Confederate Congress
when it met in Richmond; that the flag was likely manufactured in the city;
and that it was used to cover the coffin of Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall"
Jackson, the famed Virginia cavalryman who was fatally wounded when one of
his troops shot him at the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863.

The battle flag is not the only artifact removed from the Old House Chamber.

Another, Jamerson said, is a brick from the Jamestowne Church, where
Virginia's first representative body convened in 1619. The brick will be on
display in the 27,000-square-foot extension, buried beneath the south lawn
of Capital Square.

Contact Jeff E. Schapiro at (804) 649-6814 or jschapiro at timesdispatch.com.

Go Back <javascript:history.back()> 

News <http://www.timesdispatch.com/cva/ric/news.html>  | Sports
<http://www.timesdispatch.com/cva/ric/sports.html>  | Entertainment
<http://www.timesdispatch.com/cva/ric/entertainment.html> | Living
<http://www.timesdispatch.com/cva/ric/living.html> | Shopping/Classifieds
<http://www.timesdispatch.com/cva/ric/shopping_classifieds.html>  | Weather
<http://www.timesdispatch.com/cva/ric/weather.html>  | Opinion
<http://www.timesdispatch.com/cva/ric/opinion.html>  | Obituaries
<http://www.timesdispatch.com/cva/ric/obituaries.html>  | Services/Contact
Us <http://www.timesdispatch.com/cva/ric/services_contact_us.html> 
C 2007, Media General  <http://www.mediageneral.com> Inc. All Rights
Reserved. Terms
<http://www.timesdispatch.com/cva/ric/services_contact_us/terms_and_conditio
ns.html> & Conditions | Site
<http://www.timesdispatch.com/cva/ric/sitemap.html> Map
-- Part of the GatewayVa  <http://www.gatewayva.com/> Network --
webmaster at inrich.com
 <http://www.realcitiesnetwork.com/> A RealCities Network Site	
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.scvva.org/pipermail/vacourier_scvva.org/attachments/20070911/36c7dd11/attachment-0001.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/octet-stream
Size: 43 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mail.scvva.org/pipermail/vacourier_scvva.org/attachments/20070911/36c7dd11/attachment-0001.obj 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/gif
Size: 1835 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mail.scvva.org/pipermail/vacourier_scvva.org/attachments/20070911/36c7dd11/attachment-0001.gif 