{"id":867,"date":"2014-01-09T11:36:13","date_gmt":"2014-01-09T16:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/?p=867"},"modified":"2024-06-17T14:38:25","modified_gmt":"2024-06-17T18:38:25","slug":"waitman-willey-salutes-flag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/waitman-willey-salutes-flag\/","title":{"rendered":"Waitman Willey salutes flag"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1861, as talk of secession escalated before Fort Sumter, Bull Run and Gettysburg, southerners had to make a decision about the U.S. flag<\/span><\/a>. Would they continue to honor it as a symbol of their unity, or would they toss it to the ground in order to raise a Confederate banner?<\/p>\n

\"Waitman<\/a>
Waitman Willey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In Virginia, one of the men facing that decision was Waitman T. Willey, a 49-year-old who was about to be appointed to the U.S. Senate to fill the seat of James Mason, who had been expelled for his secessionist views.<\/p>\n

Prominent Virginia men from every county in the commonwealth gathered to decide what to do. On March 4, 1861, Willey rose to deliver an impassioned speech in favor of preserving the Union. In doing so, he used the American flag as his symbol.
\n
\n\u201cWherever our country\u2019s flag with its 34 stars floats on the breeze,\u201d he began, \u201cany Virginian may stand up and proudly point to that banner as a flag that represents his country and his country\u2019s greatness and power. Sir, it is a noble flag. It is a flag upon which victory has perched without interruption for 75 years\u2026.Secession will trail that glorious banner in the dust [and] destroy its prestige and its power.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Virginians voted to remain the Union, but not for long. Within weeks, they had seceded, and Fort Sumter had been fired on, igniting the War Between the States. Before the vote to separate, but sensing where it was headed, Willey rose again \u201cto record my protest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turning once more to the subject of the national flag, he said with regret that \u201cI have lived to see the hour of the commencement of our disintegration and downfall. I have lived to see the hour when the proud flag, under which we have lived in safety and honor for nearly a century,\u2026is to be trailed in the dust, and I have lived to see the hour when Virginia\u2026is about to put her foot on that flag, on the very soil that gave it glorious birth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loyal to the Union, Willey would become a senator again, this time from West Virginia, the state born during the Civil War. He would also live to see the states reunited, and the flag once again saluted in the South.<\/p>\n

\"West<\/a>
West Virginia flag<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1861, as talk of secession escalated before Fort Sumter, Bull Run and Gettysburg, southerners had to make a decision about the U.S. flag. Would they continue to honor it as a symbol of their unity, or would they toss it to the ground in order to raise a Confederate banner? In Virginia, one of… continue<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,43,3],"class_list":["post-867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history-lessons","tag-american-flag","tag-civil-war","tag-history"],"yoast_head":"\nWaitman Willey salutes flag - Gettysburg Flag Works Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/waitman-willey-salutes-flag\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Waitman Willey salutes flag - Gettysburg Flag Works Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In 1861, as talk of secession escalated before Fort Sumter, Bull Run and Gettysburg, southerners had to make a decision about the U.S. flag. 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