Joanna Troutman was from Knoxville, Georgia. It was 18-miles west of Macon, Georgia. Volunteers were recruited to fight with Texas for their independence from Mexico. Colonel Ward and his company were on-route to Texas when they passed through Knoxville.
The town of Macon had provided several volunteers who were going to fight for Texas’ Independence. Before they left, Troutman as fast as she could sewed a flag for her neighbors and comrades to carry with them on their journey to war. She was known as the most skilled seamstress in the town.
A young lieutenant took a moment to write a note and sent it to Miss Joanna when they took a rest stop in Montgomery Alabama.
‘Colonel Ward brought your handsome and appropriate flag, featuring a single blue star, as a present to the Georgia volunteers. I was fearful, from the shortness of time that you would not be able to finish it as Tastefully as you would wish, but I assure you, without an emotion of flattery, that it is beautiful and with us its value is enhanced by the recollection of the donor. I thank you for the honor of being made the medium of presentation to the company, and if they are what every two Georgian ought to be, your flag shall yet wave over fields of victory and into defiance of Despotism. I hope the proud day may soon arrive and while your star resides none can doubt your success.’
Very Respectfully, Your Friend, Hugh McLeod
The state of Georgia was one of Texas’s main supporters during their independence from mexico. Mostly because of a man named James W Fannin. he was a native of Columbus georgia and was a graduate of West Point. he migrated to Texas in 1834 after clashing with the Mexican Army in Gonzales in 1835, Fannin recruited and formed the Brazos guards. he constantly sent letters home asking for recruits to come and help him fight the good fight.
On December 23rd 1835 the Georgia Battalion after their services to Fannin. When the news of Texas’s Declaration of Independence reached Fannin’s forces the banner of the Lone Star was fluttering in the wind.
In 1839 Joanna Troutman married an attorney and moved to Elmwood Plantations. She was locally renowned as the 17-year-old girl who had conceived and created the lone star flag that was carried to Texas by the Macon volunteers. Not until 1913 did Texas lawmakers start asking who exactly made the Lone Star flag? she was called The Betsy Ross of Texas. and when they realized it was Joanna they sent to have her remains removed from her family Cemetery in Georgia and they reinterred her in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.
On March 27, 1836, Fannin and almost all his troops, including the Georgians, were imprisoned and executed in the Goliad Massacre. The tattered flag was never recovered, but it was not forgotten.
