Letter: A Defense of Connecticut’s Flag

To the Editor:

If one has ever had the pleasure of visiting Connecticut’s impressive state legislature in Hartford, they will have doubtlessly seen, fluttering alongside Old Glory, Connecticut’s state flag.

The flag has an inconspicuous design. A navy blue field adorned in the center with Connecticut’s coat of arms on a shield. The coat of arms itself is a simple design. Three grape vines, commonly understood to represent Hartford, New Haven, and Saybrook, the first three colonies in Connecticut, sit above a streamer with the state moto: Qui Transtulit Sustinent (or “He Who Transplants Sustains”).

Like many customs, furnishings, and traditions in our continually fading Yankee culture, our state flag is something we pay little mind to.

Nationally, there have been movements for states to change their flags with Minnesota being the most recent example. While this movement has yet to reach Connecticut, I’d like to preempt any calls for change by just briefly speaking as to how Connecticut ended with her current flag and why we should not only maintain the current design but take newfound pride in our flag, its history, and our state.

During the American Civil War, the US Army was hardly the behemoth it is today. It was a small, professional core of officers and soldiers who, in times of war, relied on volunteers from the across the Union to bolster its numbers. These volunteers were organized into regiments by which state they came from. You see evidence of these volunteers in many of New England’s town greens. Statues from Greenwich to Caribou in Maine honor the men who heeded their country’s call.

During the Civil War, regiments would march under two banners. One was the Stars and Stripes. The other was the regimental banner, commonly a navy blue field with some variation of the state’s coat of arms emblazoned on it.

These flags were not only used to maintain cohesion on a chaotic battlefield but were also a great source of regimental pride. Being a standard bearer, the flag carrier, was both a great honor and highly dangerous.

For each battle a regiment fought in, the name would be etched into the flag. It became a prize to hold onto captured enemy regimental banners during the Civil War. To this day, Minnesota holds onto a battle flag they captured from Virginia despite the latter’s repeated pleas for the flag’s return.

Some 55,000 men from Connecticut marched these banners, many of which can be seen in the capital, as they not only ensured that the Union would be maintained but go on to crush the serpent of slavery, our Original Sin, under a righteous heel. Some 5,500 made the ultimate sacrifice in these most noble of causes.

When Connecticut adopted her state flag in 1897, the design was directly inspired by those regimental banners that Connecticut men had fought and died under.

The South beats on, obnoxiously, about a bitter, bloody war they started, lost, and fought all to defend an evil institution. They wave their banners and prattle on about their heritage. Let us, sons and daughters of Connecticut and New England, wave our state banners with similar pride. As the Confederate battle flag represents secessions, slavery, and Jim Crow our state flags represent Union victory, abolition, and civil rights.

Perhaps, even with this knowledge, you may still be inclined to change our little “seal on a bedsheet” flag. But our banner ties us to a noble and proud history that we are all heirs to. As America celebrates her 250th anniversary this year, we should be more enthusiastic than ever to celebrate our own special, Nutmegger, history.

—  Alex Burns

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