Sibby Padgett and the Marshall House Flag

The Fort Ward Museum says of the Marshall house flag, “Made by an Alexandria sailmaker and his family, the flag was patterned after the ‘Stars and Bars,’ with red and white bars and a circle of seven stars on a blue field. An eighth star was added in the center for Virginia.”

Mrs. Sibby Padgett, wife of Alexandria sailmaker John W. Padgett, took credit for making the Marshall house flag at the request of James Jackson. When she died on September 8, 1902, obituaries across the country credited her with the flag's creation. The Washington Times said that “Mrs. Padgett made the Confederate flag which was placed on the old Marshall House in 1861, and which resulted in the death of Jackson and Ellsworth.” The Washington Evening Star said much the same thing. The Boston Home Journal called her the “‘Betsy Ross’ of the Confederacy.” When Sidney Herbert read a similar claim in the Savannah Morning News he wrote in his Letter column in the Morning News that “The item in the Morning News about Mrs. Sibley A. Padgett as ‘Betsy Ross’ of the Confederacy, because she made the flag on Mr. Jackons's hotel in Alexandria, Va., is ‘way off.’ There was no ‘Betsy Ross’ in the Confederate flag business.” He goes on to site several confederate flags that preceeded Mrs. Padgett's Marshall House flag.

Sibbey Ann Graham and John W. Padgett were married on the 12th of March 1841, when Alexandria was still a part of the District of Columbia. John W. Padgett died on April 29th 1894.