![[Flag of Cannon County]](../images/u/us-tn-cn.gif)
image by Jens Pattke, 13 June 2019
Last modified: 2023-11-11 by rick wyatt
Keywords: cannon county | tennessee |
Links: FOTW homepage |
search |
disclaimer and copyright |
write us |
mirrors
image by Jens Pattke, 13 June 2019
See also:
Cannon County, Tennessee, USA adopted a county flag in 1993. The authority to do so was challenged locally and upheld by the Tennessee Supreme Court in 1994.
Danny Nichols, 21 March 2011
On July 17, 1993, the Cannon County Commission voted unanimously to adopt an
official flag with the intentions of flying it regularly on the flag pole in
front of the court house.
The flag immediately became the center of
controversy and after a lot of negative publicity, on October 16, 1993, the
County Commission amended their previous action by providing for the flag to fly
362 days a year at the Confederate Monument erected by the United Daughters of
the Confederacy in 1926; and directed that the flag be flown at the County
Courthouse on Robert E. Lee Day (January 19), Memorial or Confederate Decoration
Day (June 3) and Nathan Bedford Forrest Day (July 13), all of which are official
Tennessee days of special observance.
Although I first came to Woodbury
in 1993, and move there shortly after, I have never seen the flag fly from the
court house. County Executive Harold Patrick refused the commission's order to
fly the flag at the courthouse because he thought tensions in the community were
too high.
A judge ruled that the action by the County Commission creating
the flag and flying it would be legal after lawsuit was filed against the county
by a group of residents opposing the flag. For some, the ruling came as a
relief, but others refused to give up the fight and appealed the case losing in
1995. "It's been a frustrating experience for everybody because of the
insensitivity of the county commissioners," said Vince O'Brien, a member of
Concerned Citizens of Cannon County, the group that sued to prevent the county's
adoption of the flag.
"I wasn't the least bit surprised at the ruling,"
said attorney Mike Corley, who represented the county. "The county was well
within its rights in adopting this flag, and it's an event that needs
memorializing. Nathan Bedford Forrest was a noteworthy person who touched our
aunty's history, and I'm proud of that fact"
[...]
County commissioners
and historical society members appear to stand by the design. They have said the
battle flag was included to honor Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest's
rescue of Confederate soldiers from a Murfreesboro jail.
[...]
http://www.cannoncounty.net/flag.html
About Nathan Bedford Forrest:
July 13, 1862 was an important day for Forrest, it was his 41st birthday and
he celebrated with the first independent victory of his controversial military
career. Col. Nathan Bedford Forrest came knocking on the Rutherford County
Courthouse door and liberated a number of citizens who were facing the hangman’s
noose. Several were from Woodbury.
Forrest, who was born in nearby Chapel
Hill, has been both been mythicized and demonized by history. To followers of
the “Lost Cause,” Forrest was a brilliant commander who would have won the war
for the Confederacy, if only he had been placed in charge. To his detractors,
Forrest was a racist responsible for the worst massacre of the Civil War and is
still vilified for his part in the founding the Ku Klux Klan.
http://www.cannoncounty.net/forrest.html
Ivan Sache, 14 June
2019
![[Flag of Cannon County, Tennessee]](../images/u/us-tn-cn).gif)
image located by Paul Bassinson, 4 March 2019
Source:
https://cannoncountytn.org
Paul Bassinson, 4 March 2019
Cannon County Sheriff’s Office; Woodbury, Tennessee, has confirmed it does
not have a flag.
Paul Bassinson, 17 October 2023
