BUY Rebel Flags For SaleAs Confederate monuments came down across the South in the summer of 2017, people in Catawba County, North Carolina, answered in their own way. Residents began raising Confederate flags on their homes, farms and businesses to show support for the soldiers who fought in the War Between the States. Local critics, including the NAACP, argued the flags were more about division than remembrance. The residents flying them said they were simply honoring their ancestors.
Catawba County’s Confederate Roots
Catawba County sits in the western Piedmont of North Carolina, around Hickory and Newton. Like most of the state, it sent a large share of its young men to war. North Carolina furnished more soldiers to the Confederacy than almost any other state, and it suffered some of the heaviest losses. Families in the area still tell stories of grandfathers and great-grandfathers who served in regiments such as the 12th, 23rd and 46th North Carolina.
Flags on Private Land
When public memorials are removed, many heritage supporters turn to the one place no city council can touch: their own property. Flying a flag on your own land is protected free expression. Across the South, groups and individuals have raised large memorial flags along highways and on private farms, often dedicating them to the memory of local soldiers.
For the people of Catawba County, the message was clear. You can take down a statue, but you cannot erase the memory of the men it honored, and you cannot stop their descendants from flying a flag on their own front porch.
Read about a similar effort in Virginia in What Happened to the Chester I-95 Flag?, and fly your own flag from our Confederate flag collection.
Source: WSOC-TV: Confederate flags fly high in Catawba County as monuments go down
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THE NAACP ARE BUNCH OF IDIOTS THEY DON’T KNOW HISTORY. THEY ONLY KNOW POLITICAL CORRECTNESS. THEY ARE RACIST.
I know this things like this can be upsetting, but we have to realize that there is a hidden and unviewed influence at work here. Someone benefits from all this noise and commotion, and feeds off the fact of citizens battling each other. In the end, though, we have to maintain our integrity on things and be willing to state what we feel in right. But I hope that doesn’t devolve into bitterness to our fellow Americans.
I’m proud of our close community since I’m in Caldwell County. I hold the flag close since my great grandfather x 3 was in the war. So proud of my heritage and Southern roots.
Bob Andrews
I think that’s right. When we no longer take pride in our community and the people in it, then the citizenry is lost and on its way out. I’m a Southerner and find great virtue in the men and women of the south, regardless of their ethnic background. My family moved three years ago (still in the South). One of the first things I did was learn about the history of the town and my new county. Like any place, I found things that are not so good, but there are so many great things. Found a guy who has lived there since the early 1930s, and sat on his porch for a while. Great stories, and I even know where to find the local moonshine (in case I ever need a powerful disinfectant). Now that heritage is part of me, too.