Old money isn't Confederate

What Scarlette Poole thought might be a found fortune in Confederate currency turned into a history lesson about the Confederate States of America. A Civil War historian in Alabama filled her in on the history of authentic currency. • Article

Team finds Confederate gunboat in S.C.

A University of South Carolina archaeologist has found the wreck of C.S.S. Peedee, a Confederate gunboat that was destroyed so it would not be captured by Union forces. • Article

Flag flap in Lexington, Va.

The City Council in Lexington, Va., limits the prominent public display of Confederate flags to the days preceding Lee-Jackson Day and the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. • Article

Erroneous grave marker to be replaced

A Maryland resident is correcting an error on the tombstone of his great-great grandfather that misidentifies the man as a Confederate soldier. • Article

Photos: Atlanta's historic Oakland Cemetery

Oakland Cemetery, a mile east of downtown Atlanta, is a burial ground dating back to the 1850s. It is the resting place for 5,000 Confederate and 16 Union soldiers. John Bell Hood witnessed the Battle of Atlanta from a home that once stood on the site. • More Oakland Cemetery photos

Modern waterproofing for ironclad replica

The addition of NASA-approved waterproofing technology to the CSS Neuse II has enabled the Civil War ironclad replica to do what the original ram could not — stand the test of time. • Story

Longstreet Society remembers namesake

The Longstreet Society, based in Gainesville, Ga., where Confederate Gen. James Longstreet lived out the last third of his life, had a weekend seminar on a leader whose reputation appears on the rebound. Participants were able to take a bus tour of Gainesville which led them to the site of Longstreet's former home, and to Roosevelt Square, which is close to the site of the old courthouse where Longstreet's funeral was held. • Article | • Southern-fried Longstreet

Markers replace stones above 5 soldiers

Five Union Army soldiers who died 145 years ago were honored with new grave markers earlier this month in Richmond County west of Rockingham, N.C.

The soldiers were foraging when they were killed by Confederates son March 7, 1865. Their graves were marked only with large stones, according to the Charlotte Observer.

White marble, federally-issued tombstones were placed on the graves in an Oct. 2 ceremony while local re-enactors, dressed in both Confederate and Union uniforms, fired salutes.

No 'Confederate' in Virginia observance

Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell announced he will declare April 2011 "Civil War in Virginia" month, rather than "Confederate History Month," as he offered an apology for a proclamation that omitted reference to slavery's role in the war. • Article

New conservation efforts for Hunley

Ten years after the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley was raised off the South Carolina coast, just why it sank off Charleston, S.C., in 1864 remains shrouded in mystery. • Article

Soldier's headstone finally corrected

The headstone of a former slave and Union soldier no longer identifies him as a member of the Confederate army, after his family failed to notice the error for years. More than 100 of Samuel Brown Sr.'s surviving descendants and Civil War buffs gathered at Vallejo's Sunrise Memorial Cemetery in California for the dedication of his new headstone. • Article

Descendants want to mark prisoners' graves

Another battle has broken out over the memorial for Confederate soldiers who died at Point Lookout in Maryland during the Civil War. Descendants want to mark a mass burial plot and want to dig to find its exact boundaries. But the federal National Cemetery Association says remains should not be disturbed. • Article

Confederate flag to be removed from mural

A new movie theater in Fredericksburg, Va., is removing a Confederate flag from a mural after it received complaints. The Muvico theater includes a Civil-War themed bar and the mural is painted on a wall of an outside seating area. The mural depicts a U.S. flag on one side, a Confederate flag on the other, and has stars, an eagle and other adornments. • Article

His hand-sewn flags are labor of love, tribute

Robert Banks does things the old-fashioned way.

Thousands of stitches are made by nimble fingers. Stars are hand-painted. Silk and wool bunting are used rather than nylon.

As for Internet sales? Sorry, no.

Making Civil War-era flags is truly a labor of love and tribute for the 60-year-old Clermont, Ga., resident who is an elevator mechanic by day.

Banks posted several of his flags Saturday morning before a memorial service at the Confederate Cemetery in Resaca, Ga. Participants in an annual re-enactment just up the road took part in the service and admired his impressive handiwork. Some of his flags take 80 hours to make.

“I am doing this to honor them,” the former re-enactor said as he worked among the graves of fallen soldiers.

An ancestor fought for the 32nd Georgia Infantry from Upson County.

Banks got interested six years ago after seeing the impressive Civil War flag collection at the Georgia Capitol. “It inspired me,” he says of the collection, which includes bloodied banners.

Since then, he has hand-sewn and painted silk, cotton and wool bunting flags. He makes both Union and Confederate flags.

“Silk was plentiful during the war,” Banks says. He holds up a Confederate flag that was pink rather than red because the color was available from England.

He eschews sewing machines, saying the results are crude. He either paints or embroiders stars.

It all depends on what was done nearly 150 years ago.

“I don’t ever try to age a flag,” Banks says.

Sunlight and humidity take their toll. “Wool really holds us. Silk is tough to work with. It wants to unravel.”

There are research resources. Banks looks at photos on the Internet and books and sees other flags at museums.

“The challenge is taking a photo and reducing it to millimeter scale.”

Among the reproduction flags he displayed at Resaca were the Confederate Army of Kentucky, Gen. William Hardees’, a Missouri battle flag and an 1840 Georgia banner. He showed me large Federal flags, including the 37th Regiment Irish Rifles of New York Volunteers and the 9th Connecticut, which were not displayed Saturday.

Two of his gorgeous works are at a Ringgold, Ga., museum. This week he is traveling to Fort McAllister Historic Park near Savannah to donate a 6 ½-foot by 10-foot garrison flag.

Banks also sells his flags, taking occasional orders from around the South. He recently produced a 34th Alabama flag. His “Fields of Honor” business flag advertises Confederate, Union, national, battle and regimental colors.

Works that take about 40 hours to make may go for between $450 and $700. The large Union flags with eagles, ribbons and tassels can take 80 hours to hand-make. They typically sell for between $1,500 and $2,000.

Banks sews all the time.

“I don’t this to make money,” he says. “I make them for me.”

Robert Banks can be contacted at 770-983-9696

• Click here to see more Facebook photos

Confederate Memorial Day steeped in tradition

June Murray Wells still remembers the Confederate Memorial Days of her childhood: the ladies in their black dresses, the wreaths, the little flags on the graves — and the last two living Confederate veterans in Charleston. • Article

Massive flag being repaired after storm

The Confederate flag at the junction of interstates 75 and 4 in Florida has been replaced – temporarily. The 30-by-60-foot flag is being repaired after wind and rain damage from an April storm, said Mike Herring, camp commander for the Gen. Jubal A. Early Camp 556 Sons of the Confederate Veterans of Tampa. • Article

150th a 'minefield throughout the South'

As Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell discovered when he proclaimed April as Confederate History Month without mentioning slavery (an omission he corrected after a volley of protests), pitching Dixie's past during the run-up to next year's 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War could be challenging. • Article

CNN: Confederate pride or prejudice?

Last week's flap over the Virginia governor's proclamation has spread. Don Lemon delves into the issue of Confederate pride, the role of slavery and why emotions still run high. • Video

Picket poll: Who was the best in gray?

Online Surveys & Market Research

'Confederate General Rides North' a finalist for Georgia literary prize

The author of “The Confederate General Rides North,” the story of a young girl who imagines herself a star military commander, is a finalist for Georgia Perimeter College’s 2010 Townsend Prize for Fiction.

Amanda C. Gable of Marietta, is among 10 Georgia writers who are being judged for the best book of fiction over the past two years. The literary prize, named for Atlanta magazine founder Jim Townsend, will be awarded April 22 at the Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta. The event is free and open to the public.

Another finalist is Philip Lee Williams of Madison, author of “The Campfire Boys” (Mercer), a novel about camp entertainers during the Civil War. It follows three brothers who are very good entertainers and very bad soldiers. It’s been called an “enchanting read” by Robert Olen Butler, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

“Confederate General” (Scribner) tells the story of Katherine McConnell, 11, who takes a road trip with her moody mother to Civil War battlefields, including Gettysburg and Appomattox, in 1968, when the nation was embroiled in the Vietnam War and the struggle for civil rights.

The book is a coming-of-age novel in which Kat fantasizes leading the life of Robert E. Lee while she comes to grips with her mother’s instability and other family issues.

Jill McCorkle, author of “Carolina Moon” and “Creatures of Habit” writes this about ‘Confederate General”: "… [it] is the compelling story of Kat McConnell, an endearing young heroine who survives life on the road with her mother by retreating into her vast knowledge of Civil War history. She reenacts battles and imagines war-torn landscapes in a way that reflects her own life while also offering escape. ..."