The Savannah Morning News

September 16, 1902

Sibby Ann Graham Padgett

There died at Alexandria, Va., a few days ago a woman, Mrs. Sibby A. Padgett, who is referred to as the Betsy Ross of the Confederacy, since it is claimed she made the first Confederate flag. The flag was constructed at the request of James Jackson, who kept a hotel in Washington, and was the cause of a bloody tragedy. As soon as it was completed Mr. Jackson raised the flag over his hotel. Col. Elmer Ellsworth demanded of him that it be pulled down. Jackson refused, and Ellsworth climbed the stairs and hauled it down with his own hands. As Ellsworth came down with the flag, Jackson shot him. that it is said, was the Confederate flags's first baptism of blood.

Sibby A. Padgett, The Savannah Morning News, Savannah Georgia, , September 16, 1902, Page 4.