R. Smith of Louisburg, North Carolina, and was made in that town. The
journals of the Confederate Congress show that countless designs for a
flag were submitted, that the Committee on a Flag reported that all
designs had been rejected and returned, the committee having adopted one
of its own; nevertheless Mr. Smith's claim to have designed the flag
finally adopted is so well supported that the Confederate Veterans, at
their General Reunion held in Richmond in 1915, passed a resolution
endorsing it.

Also in the museum is the shot-riddled smokestack of the Confederate ram
_Albemarle_, which was built on the farm of Peter E. Smith, on Roanoke
River, and is said to have been the first vessel ever launched sidewise.
The _Albemarle_, after a glorious career, was sunk by Lieutenant
Cushing, U.S.N., in his famous exploit with a torpedo carried on a pole
at the bow of a launch. It will be remembered that the launch was sunk
by the shock and that only Cushing and one member of his crew survived,
swimming away under fire.

North Carolina also claims--and not without some justice--that the first
English settlement on this continent was not that at Jamestown, but the
one made by Sir Walter Raleigh's expedition, under Amadas and Barlowe,
which landed at Roanoke Island, August 4, 1584, and remained there for
some weeks. The Jamestown Colony, say the North Carolinians, was merely
the first to _stick_.

Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, across the sound from Roanoke Island, is the
site of the first flight of a man in an aeroplane, the Wright brothers
having tried out their first crude plane there, among the Kill-Devil
sand dunes. A part of the original plane is preserved in the museum. Nor
must I leave the museum without mentioning the bullet-riddled hat of