Alabama Secession Flag

This past week at the Prattville Dragoons EC meeting, Brigade Commander Bill Myrick showed an Alabama Secession flag which is now available from Ruffin Flag. You can contact Adam Fuqua at Ruffin at 706-678-9090.  These flags are $12 each and include grommet hardware.  Alabama was actually briefly an independent republic following its secession from the United States before it and the other original six states formed the Confederate States of America.  The Alabama Secession flag is actually two sided, with different depictions on each side.  The following is from the Alabama State Archives website (http://www.archives.state.al.us/referenc/flags/105107.html ):
This flag was presented to the Alabama Secession Convention on January 11, 1861 in the House Chamber of the State Capitol in Montgomery, Alabama. "While the ladies of Montgomery sewed and presented the flag, much of it was painted by Francis Corra a painter of military and decorative banners in Montgomery."  On January 16, 1861 a reporter from the Montgomery Weekly Advertiser described the flag as a "unique affair. On one side is a representation of the Goddess of Liberty, holding in her right hand a sword unsheathed, and in her left, a small flag with one star. In an arch just above this figure are the words, "Alabama-Independent Now and Forever." On the reverse, the prominent figure is a cotton plant, with a rattlesnake coiled at its roots. Immediately above the snake are the words "Noli me tangere." Also on the same side, appears the Coat of Arms of Alabama."