Col. Wm. Washington of Virginia

Date: circa 1776.

Scarlet field, unknown symbol in center. [R36]

William Washington was a distant  relative to George Washington. He fought in the Revolutionary War from Lexington to Trenton.

He courted Jane Elliott who lived at Sandy Hill Plantation, ten miles west of Charleston. It was Jane Elliott that purportedly constructed this flag.

The flag was constructed from damask parlor curtains a square of crimson silk. The British had repeatedly raided Sandy Hill, carrying off the cattle, horses, silver, and slaves. There was little of value left on the big plantation, except those damask curtains. William mounted this scarlet flag on a hickory stick.

Damask [from the word Damascus ], is a fabric of silk, wool, linen, or coton, with a pattern formed by the weaving. True damasks are flat and reversible.

William Washington's cavalry created such havoc that British General Cornwallis sent Col. Banastre Tarleton, the most ruthless of his British cavalry officers, to capture or kill Col. Washington. Tarleton caught up with Washington at Cowpens, on the North Carolina line. The Americans defeated the British.

Later Col. Washington was taken prisoner at the Battle of Eutaw Springs. When he was freed at the end of the war, and married Jane.