The first Confederate flag raising in Georgia took place on the courthouse lawn in Preston on March 31, 1861. Judge David B. Harrell of Webster County, Capt. James Pickett of Red Hill, and Dr. Harvis Pickett of Weston, with their companies of soldiers, trained in Preston. After voting for Miss Mollie Josey as the most popular girl in town, the troops chose her to raise the flag. A vast crowd witnessed the ceremony with much enthusiasm. At the end of the war, Union troops stationed in Preston cut down and destroyed the flagpole.