order. Far better were it to let the horseman be the well-known and revered image of George Washington, as the loftiest development of the Southern gentleman. The whole design might be taken from Crawford's noble statue in the capitol square. A seal representing horse and rider, as there seen in relief against the sky, would be one of the simplest and most beautiful that the art of the die-sinker has ever given to cabinet or people.
[From a correspondent of the News.]
To the Editor of the News:
Gentlemen—I sympathize most heartily with you in the article in your last number relative to the Confederate battleflag. A new flag. What, in the name of Moses, do we want with a new flag? We have had new ones enough already.
I was originally in favor of retaining the old flag—that "Star Spangled Banner," at whose very name our hearts were wont to thrill—over decks, where the haughty cross of Saint George and the vaunted tri-color had been humbled—on fields, whose names will live forever in song and story, that flag had floated triumphantly; and who shall say that its victories were less the reward of Southern than Northern valor? The blood of our fathers had been shed for it—a Southerner had hymned it in a strain which had become a national anthem; we were as much the original government as the North, and as much entitled to retain the original flag. So I thought, but others thought differently, and before the infant Confederacy had yet a flag or a government, we belted on our weapons, and gave to the winds of Mississippi the cross of Carolina.
Then the stars and bars became our flag, and waved over the heads of our regiments when we first marched to guard the borders of Virginia. It retained most of the distinctive features of the old flag, but was still thought to differ from it sufficiently; but the first field of Manassas proved that it was a mistake. The Union was the same, the colors were all the same; and when the flags drooped 'round the staff in that sultry July day, it was impossible to distinguish them. There was no difficulty, however, when the flags were spread by the breeze, and I see no reason why the "stars and bars" should not still continue to float above all forts, ships and arsenals of the Confederacy. But we needed another battleflag. Glorious "Old Joe" willed it, and the Southern cross rose brightly in the bloody field among the constellations of war. It fulfilled all the desiderata of a battleflag. Its brilliant colors made it visible at a great distance, and there was no danger of mistaking it for the flag of any other nation. Since that time it has become historic. Displayed on a hundred stricken fields, it has never been dishonored. It were sacrilege to change it—treason to the memory of the thousands of the brave men who
"Have seen it fly in triumph o'er each closing eye."
