Palmetto Regiment

At the Battle of Chapultepec and the fighting at the Belen Gate on September 13, 1847, this flag was the first American color to be raised over the City of Mexico.

After the war Captain Charles Naylor wrote: "After we had been there sometime, it was suggested that a Flag should be raised to announce our position and success to the other Division's of the Army.

There being no means to secure the flag in its place, General Quitman ordered it down; but before this could be done the gallant officer who had planted it and held it, was shot.

One of the two men who had charge of the flag, when this officer was wounded, was himself shot just as he leaped down from the shed, and he fell with the flag in his hand, by the side of General Quitman, who was at this time in a greatly exposed position, smoking a cigar, as was his custom, and inspiring the breasts of all around him with his own cheerful daring, unpretentious heroism, and confident security of an immediate, glorious, and final triumph.

A monument was erected in his honor by his captain, Foster Marshall, in Abbeville, South Carolina, and his portrait was hung in the State House in Columbia.

On 8 December 1848 the South Carolina House of Representatives authorized the presentation of medals to the officers and men of the Palmetto Regiment.

[2] The 16 May 1850 Charleston Courier described the medal as follows: "... On one side is represented the landing of the American troops at Vera Cruz, the gallant leader of the Palmetto Regiment, Colonel Butler, having sprung from the boat that bore him to the shore, and with drawn sword, is calling on his command to follow—a figure, bearing the beloved Palmetto Flag, is on the prow of the boat, about to leap on shore, and plant the Standard, around which all appear eager to rally.

Christopher Werner, a master ironworker in Charleston, created the Palmetto Regiment Monument in 1853 and had it installed on the grounds of the state Capitol.