The one paragraph treatment, Ghost Fry, Flagpole, April 12, 1995, page 7, col. 2, of David Emanuel Twiggs is a whitewash of the first order. I am aware that the subject of the essay is H.D.D. Twiggs and that the begats are merely foundational.

However, to skip over one of the blackest stains on Southern military honour in such a cavalier fashion ill becomes one with any pretensions to historical scholarship. To paraphrase the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell, "include the warts and pimples in your painting and do not attempt to curry favor by flattery." It is true that until February 18, 1861 Twiggs had served with distinction throughout a brilliant career and had brought honour to his native State. On February 18, 1861 Twiggs dishonored his uniform and forswore his oath and word as a Southern Gentleman with the stroke of a pen.

Twiggs wrote to General Scott on January 15, 1861 expressing sympathy for Southern Liberty and requested to be relieved of command of the Department of Texas on or before March 4, 1861. The order relieving Twiggs of command is dated January 28, 1861 and was received by Twiggs on February 15, 1861. Twiggs successor, Colonel Waite, was in command at Camp Verde, only 65 miles from Twiggs headquarters at San Antonio.

In short, Twiggs surrendered the Department of Texas, not to the State of Texas or Sam Houston, Governor of Texas, but to a commission appointed by the Succession Convention. He also surrendered troops and property three days after notification of his relief from duty with his successor in the immediate neighborhood and readily available to assume command.

To his further shame he also surrendered five days prior to ratification of the Ordnance of Succession by the People of Texas on February 23, 1861, thus guaranteeing passage of a measure which then passed by a vote of 34,794 to 11,235. The Texas Ordnance of Succession went into effect on March 2, 1860, thirteen days subsequent to the Twiggs surrender.

Twiggs did hold the second highest rank in the United States Army on January 1, 1861, but I believe he was third in seniority of the four general officers of the line on the army roster. Twiggs was outranked by Lieutenant General Scott and was junior in seniority to Brigadier General Wool. Twiggs was summarily cashiered from United States service on March 31, 1861 by an order that charged him with "treachery to the flag of his country".

To my knowledge Twiggs was the only southern officer to dishonor himself in this manner. All other Southern Officers delivered United States property in their custody to a proper successor prior to resigning their commissions and several actually defended property in their care by force of arms until properly relieved and they could honorably resign.

An interesting "might have been' in the Twiggs Surrender is that Twiggs had only been in command of the Department of Texas for sixty seven days when the surrender occurred. Twiggs had relieved Colonel Robert E. Lee on December 13, 1860.

Many observers believe that pro-southern Secretary of War John B. Floyd had replaced Lee with Twiggs at the request of local secessionists who were uncertain, or more likely certain, of Lee. There is little doubt of what Lee's reply would have been if the Texas Succession Convention had demanded his surrender. Lee not Anderson would have had the honour of being the first to receive Southern fire.

You also referred to: the white flag of the Republic of Georgia in paragraph four. This is of interest to me. Would you be kind enough to provide me with a reference to this white flag? Harrison reports that the flag raised had long been in use. Cooper asserts that the flag raised was of a new design. Both agree that the flag raised was the Arms of Georgia on a white field. Reports of this design place the arms on both white and the traditional blue field. The Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond has a Georgia Flag with the arms on a red field. All authorities agree that the flag raised by Governor Brown over the Augusta Arsenal was a Red Lone Star on a white field.

Louise Frederick Hays, sometime Historian of the State of Georgia, reports in her highly romanticized Hero of Hornet's Nest that the flag raised by the Liberty Boys in Savannah in 1776 was a Blue Lone Star. This would antedate use of the Blue Lone Star by the short lived Republic of West Florida by fourteen years. I have not been able to locate a contemporary source for the Savannah Blue Lone Star.

RICHARD E. IRBY, JR.

PS: One interesting tidbit is Lee's responsibility for training the Camel Corps while serving as acting Commander of the Department of Texas. For some reason I have a hard time visualizing Marse Robert astride a camel a la Lawrence of Arabia.

PPS: Twiggs actually surrendered to Sam Maverick.

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