Exploring the History, Literature, and Culture of the Tar Heel State
— Captured battle flags returning to N.C. coast (and not everybody is happy about it).
— Tidbits of Tar Heelia tucked in David McCullough’s latest.
— For Colored Agricultural Fair, “The whole city participated, just like Bele Chere.”
— Nitrate negatives yield a (slow-loading) gallery of “Old Wilmington Mystery Photos.”
— Who would steal Mitch Easter’s storied guitars?
“After OK had been adopted as the name of a club by the Tammany boys in the presidential election of 1840, others happily follow suit….
“During the Civil War, there were OK Boys, at least in North Carolina. An 1867 narrative… by Augustus Woodbury says of the Confederate forces on Roanoke:
” ‘There were infantry and artillery on the island. There were the “Overland Greys,” “Yankee Killers,” “Sons of Liberty,” “Jackson Avengers,” “O.K. Boys” from North Carolina….’ ”
— From “OK: The Improbable Story of America’s Greatest Word” by Allan Metcalf (2010)
The women of Anson County sent off the O.K. Boys with a gorgeous flag, but it was lost early on to the 21st Massachusetts Infantry and has since fallen into dire condition.
— Secesh quote machine Catherine Ann Devereux Edmondston rips into her family for clinging to “the old striped rag.”
— Auction house expects “rag” that flew above Fort Fisher to fetch 25 G’s.
— Ah, to be a black vulture in Pisgah National Forest.
