Keywords

Civil War flags, visual culture, symbolic imagery

Abstract

Published in Chicago in 1861, “Down with the Traitors’ Serpent Flag” is one of thousands of political parlor songs from the American Civil War. Many of these songs are unremarkable musically and were preserved in homes, archives, and museum collections largely for their vibrant illustrations. In my presentation I examine this song’s lithographic cover illustration—a Union soldier grinding a Confederate flag into the dust—within a broader discourse of Civil War flag imagery taken from songs, political cartoons, and cartes-de-visite.

Compelling secrets exist within this colorful image that may not first meet the eye; to uncover these meanings along with the ways in which they operated for 19th-century audiences, I address how citizens used flags as material objects and signs in a wider social context. I argue that this defiled flag can be seen as a symbol of nation and state, as a reminder of the female presence in war, and as a surrogate for the wounded or even deceased human body. By utilizing flag culture to interrogate objects in an art historical or visual culture context, this presentation argues that vexillology should be accepted by the larger scholarly community not only as an independent discipline but as a theoretical approach to the allied fields of art history, material culture, and cultural studies.

Original Publication Citation

“Picturing Flag Violence in Civil War Sheet Music: The Case of ‘Down with the Traitor’s Serpent Flag,’” in Scot M. Guenter, ed., The Washington Flag Congress 2011: Proceedings of the 24th International Congress of Vexillology, 2 vols. (Trenton, NJ: North American Vexillological Association, 2012), 407-424

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2011

Publisher

The Washington Flag Congress 2011: Proceedings of the 24th International Congress of Vexillology

Language

English

College

Marriott School of Business

Department

Information Systems Management

University Standing at Time of Publication

Assistant Professor

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