Someone I know asked me yesterday why the National Park Service
allowed the Stars and Stripes to be lowered and replaced by a
flag of secession at an NPS site. I hadn’t heard about this, but
the event happened at Fort Pulaski National Monument on January
3. It was touted as a re-enactment of what occured 150 years ago
when Georgia Governor Joseph Brown ordered state militia troops
to occupy the federal facility. No shots were fired that day in
1861, because the fort was only manned by two caretakers. The
State of Georgia had not even officially seceded, but the
Governor was an ardent secessionist. According to this article:
“After President Abraham Lincoln’s election, Brown called on
Georgia to follow South Carolina out of the Union, warning of
the dangers of abolition that would lead to miscegenation and
racial equality. He ordered the seizure of the undefended
federal Fort Pulaski even before a popularly elected convention
voted by a narrow margin to secede. The popular secessionist
governor may well have t