The Charleston Mercury, December 7, 1860
At one o’clock yesterday, Messrs. E. LAFITTE & CO. erected a handsome flagstaff, twenty-five feet high on the roof of their office, Savannah Packet wharf, and unfurled a banner at its summit which has been universally admired. The flag has a plain white ground—something like the Hayne and Meeting streets banner—with a green palmetto in the centre and the lone star in the upper inner corner. It was saluted by prolonged cheers from the many friends whom the Messrs. LAFITTE had invited to be present on the occasion, and also by a volley of cannon, fired by the redoubtable SMITH, of shark-killing notoriety, and who proved himself as equally efficient a gunner as a knight of the hook and line. Five guns were fired off—one for South Carolina, for Georgia, for Florida, for Alabama and for Mississippi, and between the intervals of the firing the enthusiastic spectators renewed the cheering.
Messrs. LAFITTE & CO. Then invited their friends…. where they were received most cordially by Capt. PECK, and where a bounteous collation, with the auxiliaries of wine, &c., awaited them. As the guests got on board the Cecile, Capt. PECK hoisted a blood-red banner with a yellow palmetto, which was received with additional marks of enthusiasm.
Indeed, poles, of late, are multiplying almost as fast as banners. We notice that Messrs. CHAFEE & KNAUFF, at No. 135 East Bay, have erected from the second story of their store, a staff, thirty feet in height, and displaying a handsome flag from the summit. The flag is a red ground, with a yellow palmetto; in the centre the lone star and a crescent.