As victorious Confederates entered Fort Sumter on April 14, 1861, John Styles Bird, Jr., a private in the South Carolina militia unit known as the Palmetto Guard, placed his unit’s flag on the parapet facing Charleston. It became the first Southern flag to fly at Fort Sumter. The single star signified the independent Republic of South Carolina and the tree harkened back to the Revolutionary War. John Styles Ashe, the son of John Styles Bird, Jr., donated it to the National Park Service in 1979. This flag is on display in the museum at Fort Sumter.

PHOTO AND WRITE-UP COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE PALMETTO GUARD

The Palmetto Guard, organized on 28 June 1851, was a volunteer company of the South Carolina Infantry Regiment, Fourth Brigade, South Carolina Militia. The Guard used The Citadel Parade Ground--now Marion Square--in front of the Old Citadel for drill and parade. In 1857 the Fourth Brigade became the joint owner of this parade ground along with the City of Charleston.

At the time of the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, members of the Palmetto Guard manned the Steven's Ironclad Battery at Cummings Point as well as a 10-inch mortar battery nearby. A famous honorary member of the Paletto Guard was secessionist Edmund Ruffin.  Ruffin is credited with firing the first shot at Sumter from the Steven's Battery.  After Sumter's surrender, Pvt. John Styles Bird, Jr. of the unit hung the Palmetto Guard flag from the parapet of the fort facing Charleston.  This flag was the first Southern flag to fly over Fort Sumter.

The Palmetto Guard was mustered into Confederate service on 22 May 1861 as Company I, 2nd South Carolina Volunteers. The 2nd Infantry Regiment [also called 2nd Palmetto Regiment] completed its organization near Richmond, Virginia, in May, 1861. The men were from Columbia, Camden, and Charleston, and the counties of Sumter, Richland, Greenville, Kershaw, and Lancaster. After fighting in Bonham's Brigade at First Manassas, the unit served under Generals Toombs, Kershaw, Kennedy, and Conner. It participated in many conflicts of the army from the Seven Days' Battles to Cold Harbor except when it was detached with Longstreet at Chickamauga and Knoxville. The 2nd was active in Early's Shenandoah Valley operations and ended the war in North Carolina. It reported 5 killed and 43 wounded at First Manassas, and lost eighteen percent of the 338 at Savage's Station, twenty percent of the 203 at Malvern Hill, thirty-seven percent of the 253 at Sharpsburg, and forty-one percent of the 412 at Gettysburg. The regiment sustained 10 casualties at Bentonville and totalled 184 men on March 23, 1865. It surrendered with the Army of Tennessee. The field officers were Colonels Ervine P. Jones, John D. Kennedy, and Joseph B. Kershaw; Lieutenant Colonels Franklin Gaillard, A.D. Goodwyn, and William Wallace; and Major Benjamin R. Clyburn.

PALMETTO GUARD FLAG

FORT SUMTER AS IT APPEARED AFTER THE FEDERAL SURRENDER

EDMUND RUFFIN