Fleurs du Sud

“Fleurs du Sud” was a lithograph designed and produced by local drawing teacher, J.B. Guibet, during the Federal occupation of New Orleans. By skillfully engraving the flowers in this lithograph, the artist was able to make available to New Orleanians an illustration of the outlawed Confederate First National Flag, affectionately known as the “Stars and Bars.” It wasn’t long, however, before the Union authorities learned of Guibet’s deception, and every effort was made to locate and destroy “Fleurs du Sud” lithographs. This reproduction was made from one of the very rare surviving examples of this daring and ingenious expression of Confederate loyalty which lingered in New Orleans after the city fell to the enemy. The First National Flag is hidden in the lithographs floral design. The blue shaded area in the upper left hand corner represents the flags blue canton. There are eleven white five-pointed flowers representing the eleven Confederate States and two blue flowers of the same design representing Kentucky and Missouri, both border states. The two rows of red shaded flowers represent the red bars and the single row of white flowers, the white bar. The colors in the original lithograph were subtle shades so that the flag pattern would not be too obvious.