Unofficial Georgia State Flag

(18?? - 1879)

History does not record who made the first Georgia state flag, when it was made, what it looked like, or who authorized its creation. Likely, the banner originated in one of the numerous militia units that existed in antebellum Georgia.

In 1861, a new provision was added to Georgia's code requiring the governor to supply regimental flags to Georgia militia units assigned to fight outside the state. These flags were to depict the "arms of the State" and the name of the regiment. In heraldry, "arms" refers to a coat of arms, which is the prominent design -- usually shown on a shield -- located at the center of an armorial bearing or seal. Arms usually appear on seals, but they are not synonymous with seals.The code gave no indication as to the color to be used on the arms or the flag's background, though militia flags probably would have been on a field of blue.

Shortly after the Civil War, an artist reconstructed a scene of Georgia troops in action near Bull Run in July 1861. This engraving (left center) shows one of the soldiers is holding either a regimental or unofficial state flag with the Georgia coat of arms on a solid field.

With the exception of events surrounding Georgia's secession in January 1861, there is no evidence that state flags in Georgia were political symbols flown over the state capitol, courthouses, or other government buildings. No engravings or photos of the state capitol buildings in Milledgeville and Atlanta ever show a state flag. Usually, no flag is visible--but if a flag is shown, it is always the U.S. flag.

Instead of a governmental symbol, state flags in Georgia well into the 20th century were primarily intended for use by state militia units. When the General Assembly finally adopted an official state flag in 1879, the language was inserted into the state code title dealing with the state militia. Only when a new state flag was adopted in 1956 was the flag provision removed from its state militia context.

Thus, because of the pre-1879 state flag's origin as a military flag, it probably most often appeared on a blue field. However, some versions of the flag used a red background. The Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia, has one of the few surviving Georgia state flags from the Civil War era--a large 10- by 14-foot flag captured by Sherman's forces when Savannah fell in late 1864. This banner (left bottom) consists of the columned archway from the Georgia coat of arms in white cotton on a field of red wool without any words or the customary soldier. Museum records identify this as a "storm flag."

In addition to flags with fields of blue and red, there are some accounts of the Georgia coat of arms being sewn onto a field of white. Also characteristic of the fact that there were no official specifications, coats of arms probably were in a variety of colors--including multiple colors, gold, and white.

Based on the best available evidence, the above flag is a reconstruction of the pre-1879 unofficial Georgia state flag as it would have appeared using a color version of the coat of arms from the 1799 state seal. However, multi-color coats of arms would have been more difficult and expensive to make, and it is likely that many of the actual flags used a single color.

© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia.

(1879 - 1902)

In 1879, state senator Herman H. Perry introduced legislation giving Georgia its first official state flag. Colonel Perry was a Confederate veteran, a fact that probably influenced his proposal to take the Stars and Bars, remove the stars, extend the blue canton to the bottom of the flag, and narrow its width slightly. The legislation provided no height vs. length dimensions, but it did stipulate the width of the blue band was to be one-third the length of the entire flag. Also, the red of the flag was specified to be scarlet.

Why had Georgia finally adopted an official state flag? On the previous day, the 1879 General Assembly had passed a law recodifying state law regulating volunteer troops. Included in the revision was a provision that: "Every battalion of volunteers shall carry the flag of the State, when one is adopted by Act of the General Assembly, as its battalion colors."

Governor Colquitt approved Georgia's first official state flag on October 17, 1879.

Georgia State Flag

(c. 1902 - c. 1920s)

In 1902, Georgia's General Assembly enacted legislation stipulating that Georgia's coat of arms (i.e., the interior section of the state seal that shows the arch) be incorporated on the vertical blue band of the state flag. However, in their 1904 volume, The Story of Georgia , Katharine Massey and Laura Wood include a color plate showing the design above as Georgia's state flag. Rather than Georgia's coat of arms being placed on the blue band, the coat of arms is shown on a gold-outlined white shield, with the date "1799" shown below the arms. Additionally, without any statutory authorization, a red ribbon with "Georgia" was added below the shield on the blue background.

Exactly who was responsible for these departures from the 1902 statute--and when--is not known, but clearly by 1904, this was accepted as Georgia's state flag. And, in fact, several copies of this flag survive today attesting to its use. Interestingly, despite the addition of the shield, date, and red ribbon, the flag clearly demonstrates that that Georgia's coat of arms was not synonymous with the state seal.

A color postcard showing Georgia's exhibition hall at the Jamestown Exposition in 1907 incorporates the identical shield design, further evidence that this design had quickly become accepted as Georgia's coat of arms.

In 1914, the General Assembly changed the date on Georgia's state seal from 1799 (the year the seal was adopted) to 1776 (the year of independence). It is not known whether the date on the above flag subsequently was changed. Sometime in the 1920s, however, Georgia state flags began appearing with the state seal rather than the coat of arms on a white and gold shield. Once again, the change came without official authorization of the legislature, and there is no record of who directed the change or exactly when it took place

(c. 1920-1956)

In 1902, Georgia's General Assembly enacted legislation stipulating that Georgia's coat of arms be incorporated on the vertical blue band of the state flag. Copies of the state flag with only the coat of arms (i.e., the interior section of the state seal that shows the arch) survive. However, by the late 1910s or early 1920s, a new, unofficial version of Georgia's state flag--one incorporating the entire state seal--began appearing. There is no record of who ordered the change or when it took place.

The new flag may have resulted from a 1914 law changing the date on Georgia's state seal from 1799 (the date the seal was adopted) to 1776 (the year of independence). Because some flag makers had been including "1799" beneath the coat of arms, it became necessary to change the date on new flags. At that point, possibly the Secretary of State or a flag manufacturer may have decided that the entire state seal created a more uniform flag.

The first state publication to show Georgia's flag with a seal was the Georgia Official Register for 1927, which showed the above flag--but with a color seal. In some cases, the flag had a seal that was predominantly gold. In most cases, however, the seal is simply a blue line drawing on white background. In some cases, the seal's outer edge touches the blue background, while in others (as shown above) the seal is situated in a larger circle of white. Also, until the mid-1950s (when a new seal was drawn), various versions of the Georgia seal were used on state flags.