Historic 2nd Spartan Regiment of Militia Flag

After being hidden away for more than two centuries…

This flag was on public display (June 2023) at the Museum of the Revolution in Philadelphia for the first time since it flew over the regiment during the Revolutionary War. The newly discovered flag is one of fewer than half a dozen surviving Revolutionary War flags from the South. The flag was returned to the Friends of the Spartanburg County (S.C.) Library in 2024.

The symbols on the flag

The flag has seven horizontal stripes painted in gold paint. The six blue (spaces) “stripes” in between the gold ones make a total of 13 stripes, a prominent number used on the early flags well before the “Stars and Stripes” became standard. The rattlesnake symbolized the fight against the British tyranny of King George III and Parliament. The black dog could very well symbolize a Spartan war dog from ancient Greece.

Battle in the Backcountry

After the siege of Charleston (the capital of South Carolina) between March 29 and May 12, 1780, and the defeat of American General Horatio Gates’ Army at Camden on August 16, 1780, both sides turned their attention to the woods and hills of the Western Carolinas. Bands of Loyalist and American militia regularly encountered each other with bloody consequences.

The 2nd Spartan Regiment of militia served in dozens of battles across the state from 1779 until the end of the war in 1783. On Oct. 7, 1780, southern militia forces including the 2nd Spartan Regiment surrounded and defeated a large Loyalist force at King’s Mountain. Individual companies, battalions, or individual members of the regiment were present at Stono Ferry, Hanging Rock, Musgrove’s Mill, Ninety-Six, Eutaw Springs, and dozens of other skirmishes. Also known as the “Fair Forest Regiment” and led by Colonel Thomas Brandon, its men experienced the brutality of a civil war.