At the 2006 Southeastern Stamp Show in Marietta, GA, I went around to all the dealers, as I usually do, and asked each if they had any Confederate covers. After looking at the meager amount that was for sale, I could not find anything that appealed to me. A friend with me wanted to look at U.S. covers so I walked around the show floor to kill some time. I passed a dealer booth and noticed a colorful Confederate flag patriotic cover lying on his table. Since I had already asked the dealer if he had any Confederate covers and was told "no," I was very surprised to see this gorgeous patriotic cover (Figure 1) and immediately fell in love with it. Upon inquiry, I was told he had literally just bought it from a visitor at the stamp show. I, of course, quickly purchased the cover. As the saying goes, I was at the right place at the right time - pure luck! The 12-star flag patriotic cover has a Traveller's Repose, VA (now West Virginia), manuscript cancellation dated September 10 (1861) with a manuscript "Paid 10." In addition, the postmaster wrote "Jeff Davis" on the twelve-star flag to show his Southern sentiment. The cover is a Dietz Type F12-4 with verse 34, one of only six types known. These flag patriotic covers are scarce because the 12-star flag was official for only 11 days (November 28 to December 9, 1861, when Kentucky was admitted to the Confederacy as the 13th Confederate state). The patriotic cover had no markings on the reverse so I have no idea of the provenance, if any. Five patriotic covers of various designs (flag and cavalryman) are known from Traveller's Repose.

There is a cornmon belief that 12-star flag patriotic envelopes were printed on or after Missouri, the 12th state, was admitted to the Confederacy on November 28, 1861. However, there are at least four known 12-star flag patriotic covers of various designs with 1861 cancellations of June 6, August 3, September 10 (Figure 1) and November 11. Gen. John Kimbrough believes that some printers simply made a mistake in the number of stars or perhaps the news of the day was not reliable and some printers thought Missouri or Kentucky had been admitted to the Confederacy. The June 6, 1861, cover cited above was actually off by two stars since Tennessee was not admitted to the Confederacy until July 2, 1861. So there was obviously confusion on the part of some printers. The proof that my cover is September 10, 1861 versus 1862, is the fact that the Traveller's Repose post office was closed in early April 1862. The last known Traveller's Repose cover was dated March 31, 1862.

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