Flags of the Confederate States of America
The flags of the Confederate States of America have a history of three successive designs during the American CivilWar. The flags were known as the "Stars and Bars", used from 1861 to1863; the "Stainless Banner", used from 1863 to1865; and the " Banner", used in1865 shortly before the Confederacy's dissolution. A rejected national flag design was also used as a battleflag by the ConfederateArmy and featured in the "Stainless Banner" and " Banner" designs. Although this design was never a, it is the most commonly-recognized symbol of the Confederacy.
Since the end of the Civil War, private and officialuse of the Confederateflags, particularly the battleflag, has continued amid philosophical, political, cultural, and racial controversy in the UnitedStates. These include flags displayed in states; cities, towns and counties; schools, colleges and universities; private organizations and associations; and individuals. The battleflag was also featured in the stateflags of Georgia and Mississippi, although it was removed by Georgia in2003 and Mississippi in2020. However, the new design of the Georgiaflag still references the original "Stars and Bars" iteration of the Georgiaflag. After the Georgiaflag was changed in2001, the city of Trenton, Georgia, has used a flag design nearly identical to the previous version with the battleflag.
It is estimated that 500–544 flags were captured during the war by the Union. The flags were sent to the WarDepartment in Washington.
First flag: the "Stars and Bars" (1861–1863)
The Confederacy's first official national flag, often called the , flew from March4, 1861, to May1, 1863. Twomen claim to have designed the flag. While it has been traditionally attributed to Prussian-American artist Nicola Marschall from Marion, Alabama, evidence now shows that OrenRandolph from Louisburg, NorthCarolina likely also designed a similar flag at the same time. Alabama and NorthCarolina both certified that theirs was the first design, but an investigation into both men's claims has revealed evidence that supports both men.The flag is very similar to the flag of the United States, and is said to resemble the flag of Austria, with which Nicola Marschall would have been familiar. The original version of the flag featured a circle of seven white stars in the canton, representing the seven states of the South that originally composed the Confederacy: SouthCarolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. The "Stars and Bars" flag was adopted on March4, 1861, in the first temporary national capital of Montgomery, Alabama, and raised over the dome of that first Confederate capitol. Marschall also designed the Confederatearmy uniform.
One of the first acts of the Provisional Confederate Congress was to create the Committeeof the Flag andSeal, chaired by WilliamPorcher Miles, a Democratic congressman and "Fire-Eaters|" from. The committee asked the public to submit thoughts and ideas on the topic and was, as historian JohnM. Coski puts it, "overwhelmed by requests not to abandon the 'oldflag' of the UnitedStates." Miles had already designed a flag that later became known as the Confederate BattleFlag, and he favored his flag over the "Stars and Bars" proposal. But given the popular support for a flag similar to the U.S.flag, the "Stars and Bars" design was approved by the committee.
As the Confederacy grew, so did the numbers of stars: two were added for Virginia and Arkansas in May1861, followed by two more representing Tennessee and NorthCarolina inJuly, and finally twomore for Missouri and Kentucky.
When the American Civil War broke out, the "Stars and Bars" confused the battlefield at the because of its similarity to the U.S. flag, especially when it was hanging limply on its flagstaff. The "Stars and Bars" was also criticized on ideological grounds for its resemblance to the U.S.flag. Many Confederates disliked the Stars and Bars, seeing it as symbolic of a centralized federal power against which the Confederate states claimed to be seceding. As early as April1861, a month after the flag's adoption, some were already criticizing the flag, calling it a "servile imitation" and a "detested parody" of the U.S.flag. In January1862, GeorgeWilliam Bagby, writing for the Southern Literary Messenger, wrote that many Confederates disliked the flag. "Everybody wants a new Confederateflag," Bagby wrote. "The present one is universally hated. It resembles the Yankeeflag, and that is enough to make it unutterably detestable." The editor of the expressed a similarview: "It seems to be generally agreed that the 'Stars and Bars' will never do for us. They resemble too closely the dishonored 'Flagof '...we imagine that the 'BattleFlag' will become the SouthernFlag by popular acclaim." WilliamT. Thompson, the editor of the Savannah Morning News|, also objected to the flag, due to its aesthetic similarity to the U.S.flag, which for some Confederates had negative associations with emancipation and abolitionism. Thompson stated in April1863 that he disliked the adoptedflag "on account of its resemblance to that of the abolition despotism against which we are fighting."
Over the course of the flag's use by the, additional stars were added to the canton, eventually bringing the total number to thirteen-a reflection of the Confederacy's claims of having admitted the borderstates of Kentucky and Missouri, where slavery was still widely practiced. The first showing of the flag was outside the BenJohnson House in Bardstown, Kentucky; the design was also in use as the Confederatenavy's battle ensign. The design uses the same starformation as the.
Second flag: the "Stainless Banner" (1863–1865)
Many different designs were proposed during the solicitation for a second Confederate nationalflag, nearly all based on the [|Battle Flag]. By1863, it had become well-known and popular among those living in the Confederacy. The Confederate Congress specified that the new design be a white field "...with the union to be a square of the width of the flag, having the groundred; thereupon a broad saltire of blue, bordered with white, and emblazoned with mullets or stars, corresponding in number to that of the ConfederateStates."File:Stainless_banner_grave_flag_2.jpg|thumb|Stainless Banner grave flag at Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston, South Carolina
The flag is also known as the Stainless Banner, and the matter of the person behind its design remains a point of contention. On April23, 1863, the Savannah MorningNews editor WilliamTappan Thompson, with assistance from WilliamRoss Postell, a Confederate blockade runner, published an editorial championing a design featuring the battleflag on a white background he referred to later as "The WhiteMan's Flag", a name which never caught on. In explaining the white background of his design, Thompson wrote, "As a people, we are fighting to maintain the Heaven-ordained supremacyof the whiteman over the inferior or coloredrace; a whiteflag would thus be emblematical of our cause." In a letter to Confederate Congressman, dated April24, 1863, a design similar to the flag which was eventually created was proposed by General, "whose earlier penchant for practicality had established the precedent for visual distinctiveness on the battlefield, propos that 'a good design for the nationalflag would be the present as UnionJack, and the rest all white or all blue'... The final version of the second nationalflag, adopted May1, 1863, did just this: it set the St.Andrew's Cross of stars in the UnionJack with the rest of the civilian banner entirely white."
The Confederate Congress debated whether the white field should have a blue stripe and whether it should be bordered in red. William Miles delivered a speech supporting the simple white design that was eventually approved. He argued that the battleflag must be used, but it was necessary to emblazon it for a nationalflag, but as simply as possible, with a plain white field. When Thompson received word the Congress had adopted the design with a blue stripe, he published an editorial on April28 in opposition, writing that "the blue bar running up the center of the white field and joining with the right lower arm of the blue cross, is in bad taste, and utterly destructive of the symmetry and harmony of the design." Confederate Congressman PeterW. Gray proposed the amendment that gave the flag its white field. Gray stated that the white field represented "purity, truth, and freedom."
Regardless of who truly originated the Stainless Banner's design, whether by heeding Thompson's editorials or Beauregard's letter, the Confederate Congress officially adopted the Stainless Banner on May1, 1863. The flags that were actually produced by the Richmond Clothing Depot used the adopted for the Confederatenavy's battle ensign, rather than the official.
Initial reaction to the second national flag was favorable, but over time it became criticized for being "too white." Military officers also voiced complaints about the flag being too white, for various reasons, such as the danger of being mistaken for a flagof truce, especially on naval ships where it was too easily soiled. The observed that it was essentially a battle flag upon a flagof truce and might send a mixed message. Due to the flag's resemblance to one of truce, some Confederate soldiers cut off the flag's white portion, leaving only the canton.
The first official use of the "Stainless Banner" was to drape the coffin of General ThomasJ. "Stonewall" Jackson as it layin state in the, May12, 1863. As a result of this first usage, the flag received the alternate nickname of the "JacksonFlag".
Third flag: the "Blood-Stained Banner" (1865)
Rogers lobbied successfully to have this alteration introduced in the Confederate Senate. Rogers defended his redesign as symbolizing the primary origins of the people of the Confederacy, with the saltire of the Scottishflag and the red bar from the flagof France, and having "as little as possible of the Yankeeblue" the UnionArmy wore blue, the Confederatesgray.The Flag Act of 1865, passed by the Confederate Congress near the very end of the war, describes the flag in the following language:
Due to the timing, very few of these third national flags were actually manufactured and put into use in the field, with many Confederates never seeing the flag. Moreover, the ones made by the Richmond Clothing Depot used the square canton of the second nationalflag rather than the slightly rectangular one that was specified by the law.