North Carolina Order of Confederate Rose

05/20/2026

On May 20, 1861, the day that the secession resolution was adopted by the state of North Carolina, an ordinance to adopt a state flag was presented by Colonel John D. Whitford. A committee of seven was formed with Colonel Whitford appointed chairman. The original ordinance stated that "...the flag of this State shall be a blue field with a white V thereon, and a star, encirling which shall be the words, "Sirgit astrum, May 20, 1775."
The design intended by this original description for the flag was never to be. Colonel Whitford and his committee consulted an artist from Raleigh, William Jarl Browne, for advice. Mr. Browne prepared a model for a state flag and submitted it to the committee for approval. The "Browne" flag was not at all like that described in the original proposal but was, nevertheless, approved by the North Carolina Convention on June 22, 1861.
The design provided by William Jarl Browne and adopted by the Convention was described as having a red field with two bars making up the fly; the top one blue and the bottom bar white. Centered on the red field was a white five pointed star. Above the star, in a semi-circular mold, was the date May 20, 1775 representing the much questioned "Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence." Below the star was the date, May 20, 1861 representing the date of North Carolina's secession from the union.
This flag was carried by the North Carolina Regiments, along with the Confederate colors, throughout the Civil War. After the war, North Carolina like other secession states, adopted a revised design for their state flag. In March of 1865, a bill introduced by General Johnstone Jones, was passed and the design of the North Carolina State Flag change for the last time. The flag's field was changed from red to blue. The top bar of the fly was changed from blue to red. The gilt letters "N" and "C" were placed on either side of the white star and gilt scrolls were added above and below the star. The scroll above still displays the date of the "Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence" but the date displayed in black letters on the lower scroll displays April 12, 1776, the date of the "Hallifax Resolves" instead of May 20, 1861, the date of secession.
Legislative records show that a "state flag" was not established or recognized until 1861. The constitutional convention of 1861, which passed the ordinance of secession, adopted a state flag. On May 20, 1861, the day the secession resolution was adopted, Col. John D. Whitford, a member of the convention from Craven County, introduced an ordinance, which was referred to a select committee of seven. The ordinance stated that "the flag of this State shall be a blue field with a white V thereon, and a star, encircling which shall be the words, Sirgit astrum, May 20, 1775."
Colonel Whitford was made chairman of the committee to which this ordinance was referred. The committee secured the aid and advice of William Jarl Browne, an artist of Raleigh. Browne prepared and submitted a model to this committee and this model was adopted by the convention of June 22, 1861. The Browne model was vastly different from the original design proposed by Colonel Whitford. The law as it appears in the ordinance and resolutions passed by the convention is as follows:

AN ORDINANCE IN RELATION TO A STATE FLAG
Be it ordained by this Convention, and it is hereby ordained by
the authority of the same, That the Flag of North Carolina shall
consist of a red field with a white star in the centre, and with the
inscription, above the star, in a semi-circular form, of "May 20th,
1775," and below the star, in a semi-circular form, of "May 20th,
1861." That there shall be two bars of equal width, and the length
of the field shall be equal to the bar, the width of the field being
equal to both bars: the first bar shall be blue, and second shall be
white: and the length of the flag shall be one-third more than its
width. [Ratified the 22nd day of June, 1861.]
This state flag, adopted in 1861, is said to have been issued to North Carolina regiments of state troops during the summer of 1861 and borne by them throughout the war. It was the only flag, except the national and Confederate colors, used by North Carolina troops during the Civil War. This flag existed until 1885, when the Legislature adopted a new model.

It seems only right that the emblem of the Old North State should fly proudly for all of its citizens to enjoy. This is the flag that NC Society of Confederate Rose honors at their memorial services and meetings.

05/20/2026

The Hornet’s Nest flag is a historic, albeit unofficial, banner of North Carolina. It is most prominently white and features a painted hornet’s nest accompanied by the date “May 20, 1775,” commemorating the day local residents purportedly declared independence from Great Britain.The History and LoreThe "Hornet's Nest" Moniker: In 1780, during the American Revolutionary War, British General Lord Cornwallis occupied the Charlotte area but faced fierce, relentless resistance from local patriots and militia. Upon being forced to retreat, Cornwallis wrote that “Charlotte Town was a hornet's nest of rebellion”.The Mecklenburg Declaration: The date featured on the flag, May 20, 1775, refers to the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. If true, this local decree preceded the national United States Declaration of Independence by more than a year. It is sometimes referred to as the “Beehive Flag” or “Hornet’s Nest”. It was presented by Dr. William Sams Tunner and his sons, William Woodhul and Jonathan Sams, in honor of Dr. Tunner’s parents, Lieutenant General William Henry Tunner, and Sarah Margaret Sams Tunner

05/20/2026

North Carolina seceded from the Union on May 20, 1861. The state initially rejected secession but reversed its decision after President Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 troops to suppress the southern rebellion, which forced North Carolinians to choose between the Union and fighting against neighboring Southern states.
Initially, North Carolina had a strong pro-Union sentiment, and voters strongly favored compromise to preserve the United States. The state's economy was less dependent on the plantation system and enslaved labor compared to the Deep South, with a large population of non-slaveholding yeoman farmers who valued the economic stability the Union provided. In a popular February 1861 vote, citizens narrowly voted against holding a secession convention. The turning point came in April 1861 when the Union invaded the seceded states. North Carolina's leadership viewed this federal action as tyrannical and refused to provide troops to fight against their fellow Southerners
Furthermore, the secession of neighboring states—especially Virginia to the north—left North Carolina geographically trapped. Surrounded by the newly formed Confederacy, remaining in the Union became practically and politically impossible.
Faced with this military and political reality, a state convention officially adopted an Ordinance of Secession on May 20, 1861, joining the Confederate States of America. Despite this move, a fervent pro-Union presence remained in certain regions of the state throughout the entirety of the War of Northern Aggression. It was never about preserving slavery. Most soldiers from North Carolina were not slave owners, just poor men protecting their home and state.

05/05/2026

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05/05/2026

The Medicine Woman

By Mary McCullen Savage (1908-2000)



“Cat Britt, it’s almost sundown, and you’d best rummage through those potato vines until you find your s***fbox,” chuckled Granny Susan.



“Don’t you recall that the last time that zealot reformed you, you couldn’t sleep a wink until you had dipped all of mine?”



Granny Susan Cashwell liked s***f and knew how to locate and soften first-rate black gum brushes for dipping. She taught us children how to make good brushes, too, but never shared her s***f with us. Instead, she let us dip brown sugar.



Once, while dipping away by the fireplace, she piled oak logs on the fireplace and placed lightard kindling on the coals. Fanning them to make a blaze, she cautioned me, “Don’t you ever do that, Honey, you might catch yourself afire.”



Granny had sound advice for not only children but adults as well. Born in 1830, she had shared in the development of Persimmon College (now Keener) community and often recounted experiences of and tales about the early British settlers in the area. She mastered their skills and crafts, too, especially the healing arts.



Until her death, she could demonstrate efficiency with her spinning wheel and loom. In addition to preserving food, making soap and the like, she even helped my great-grandfather, William Herring Cashwell, make brick in a kiln located behind the site of Halls School.



Convinced that self-sufficiency is a good policy, she used to say “Right here we can find, make, or grow anything we need except salt. Take a look at the house your great-grandfather and I built, for instance. Since nails were scare, we mortised and pegged together the entire framework, and used nails only for ceiling, weatherboards, and shingles. He hewed and rived a lot of the timber by himself, too.



Then she added, “That’s why he was lame in one leg – an ax glanced off a knot on a log and cut out a thick of a muscle.”



That turn of thought brought up the Civil War. “Herring (her husband) didn’t have to go but he went anyway,” she continued with pride. “Unable to march with the infantry, he cooked and helped keep up the strength and morale of others.”



“Take a look at this ring, child, it’s special: Your great grandfather was at Appomattox Courthouse when Lee surrendered. Agonized by defeat, General Lee thrust his sword into an apple tree. His soldiers hacked the tree apart so each man could have a memorial of the occasion. Look at this- your grandfather carved his piece of that apple tree into this ring.”



Recalling war years and reconstruction, she was a living history of how and why self-sufficiency enabled women whose menfolk were on the battlefields to survive. To save things from plundering Yankee troops, people buried supplies and their treasures in wooded areas and tried to conceal livestock where invaders would locate it.



Assuming that none lingered in the area by April of 1865, she dug up the cured meat and was storing it in her kitchen loft. “That was my mistake, “she reminisced. “Sherman’s men stormed in and climbing into the loft, took every ham and shoulder we’d cured. It was good fortune that I was washing clothes, though, and under them lay a piece of side meat, the only meat we had until hog-killing time.”



She paused but smiled, “Killing hogs was thin that December, too. Those Yankee soldiers ran down and took away every hog and chicken in sight.”



What made Susan Stanley Cashwell exceptional among her generation of hardy women was her medical knowledge and practice. Her grandparents who settled in the Keener area in the 1770s brought from England some medical books and plants for an herb garden.



She grew and knew the “virtues” of many herbs and barks, and long before a German scientist extracted aspirin from willow bark, made a concoction that eased the pains of neighbors. She also sought advice and information from any of the medical doctors in Sampson County that she might encounter.



Two testimonials illustrate why she was called “The Medicine Woman of Persimmon College.” When Mat Brewer, who lived on my grandfather’s farm, complained of severe abdominal pains, Granny Susan examined him, sent for Dr. Frank Holmes of Clinton, and scalded down a table for an operation.



She administered a sedative and Dr. Holmes removed Mat’s appendix. This operation was a remarkable achievement on behalf of all three; for with the publication of a paper on appendicitis published in 1886, “the modern surgical treatment of the diseased appendix was started.”

Some of us recall hearing Mat Brewer say years later, “I owe my life to your Granny Susan.”



When she died in 1913, her coffin was placed in a grave on Raleigh Road near the Halls Fire station, and a minister who had known her for decades reviewed her life. In a eulogy to her, J*p Weeks stated “Ada and I had 13 children, and Aunt Susie is the only doctor who has ever treated any of us.”



The sources of my information are Susan Stanley Cashwell and those who knew her well, attendance at her funeral, and a quotation from “A History of Surgery” published in 1843.



One of her children, Gaston B. Cashwell, was a well-known Holiness preacher from Dunn who led the Pentecostal movement in this area. He was well known as the “Pentecostal Apostle of the South.”

* From the Sampson Independent, October 27, 1982

04/30/2026

“Esse quam videri” is a Latin phrase that translates to “to be rather than to seem” Some need to think about our state's motto. NCOCR rather be than to seem. Truth will always surface. No matter how good the story is

04/28/2026

04/27/2026