First Confederate Flag Raising in Georgia

Webster County · dedicated 1955 · At the courthouse in Preston.

On this Courthouse lawn the first Confederate flag raising in Georgia took place March 31, 1861. Judge David B. Harrell of Webster County, Capt. James Pickett of Red Hill, Dr. Harvis Pickett of Weston, with their companies of soldiers, trained in Preston. Voting for Miss Mollie Josey as the most popular girl in town, the troops chose her to raise the flag. With much ceremony and enthusiasm a vast crowd witnessed the rites. At the end of the war Union troops stationed in Preston cut down and destroyed the flagpole.

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