South Carolina
South Carolina was the first Southern state to secede and many original South Carolina cockades exist.

This cockade was owned by South Carolina Surgeon General Robert Wilson Gibbes (1809-1866). In addition to serving the Confederacy, Gibbes collected and published extensively on paleontology, was an author, a newspaper owner and editor, a patron of the arts, mayor of Columbia, and was well-versed in geology, biology and history. His home and extensive collections were burned by General Sherman in February 1865.

The cockade is made from silk ribbon and palmetto fronds. South Carolina is the "Palmetto State," making palm fronds a highly popular material for creating South Carolina cockades.

Florida
Florida was the third state to secede. At the Florida secession convention, Susan Bradford recounts the following: ""The ambassador from South Carolina had evidently made an impression on his audience of yesterday and somebody had been busy last night, for in every direction could be seen Palmetto cockades, fastened with a blue ribbon; there were hundreds of them. When at last the hall of representatives was opened and Father and I took seats, Judge Gwynn came in and pinned a cockade on Father and one on me. Oh, I was so proud."

This cockade was one of those sold at the last Great Bazaar at the South Carolina Old State House on January 16, 1865. Each state had a booth there, and this was sold at Florida's booth. Women helped to organize the event to raise money for the Columbia Wayside Hospital.

Tennessee
I'll end with one I love - a beautiful silk velvet cockade preserved in a lady's scrapbook. The note with it says, "Secession Cockade. Made by my mother and worn by me." Those simple poignant words remind us that cockades were not nass-produced, nor was the design mandated by any state or organization.

Cockades were hand-sewn by courageous mothers, wives and sweethearts. They were worn with bravery in the face of insults, aggression and even threat of arrest. It took a gutsy, resolute individual to pin one on, making a principled stand in the face of opposition.

That's the spirit of the Confederacy that is honored and remembered every Confederate History Month.