February 17, 1863
Outwitting The Butternuts. - In front of Lieutenant Haycock's recruiting office in Washington Hall, there is an American flag displayed. During the last six months several ladies and young girls have, in passing along the street, preferred to walk around the emblem of liberty rather than pass beneath its folds. Latterly this disposition on the part of certain ladies and misses, to slight the flag of their country, has become more apparent, and the Sargeant in charge of the office, don't like to see it. Yesterday the Sargeant stretched a flag clear across the sidewalk and extended another out several feet into the street, so that now all who pass on that side of the street are bound to pass under one of the flags or go out into the middle of the street.
Timeline of West Virginia: Civil War and Statehood: Undated: February 1863