As often happens when racial tensions are high in the United States, the "Confederate Flag" comes under scrutiny as a racist symbol that must be removed from all places except for museums and historic sites (and sometimes there are calls for it to be removed from those places as well). This post is not intended to be a political post, or in any way promote racism or oppression of any people. It is simply my hope to set forth historic context in regards to both the official flag(s) of the Confederate Government, and the most recognizable of all the battle flags of the Confederate military.
THE STARS AND BARS
As the Confederate Government struggled to establish itself as it's own country and forge it's own identity, it adopted necessary symbols such as it's own flag.
Many Confederates felt that they were leaving a Union that had strayed from the founding fathers vision and that they were forming a new country that would fulfill that vision of 1776, so it is not surprising that their first go at a new flag showed heavy influence from the Stars and Stripes of the United States. Known as the Stars and Bars, the first flag was adopted on March 4, 1861. The 7 starts represent that original Confederate States: South Carolina (Dec 20, 1860), Mississippi (Jan 9, 1861), Florida (Jan 10, 1861), Alabama (Jan 11, 1861), Georgia (Jan 19, 1861), Louisiana (January 26, 1861), & Texas (February 1, 1861). Eventually 6 more stars would be added.
However, the many visual similarities to the flag used by the Union Army quickly caused confusion on the battlefield. The Confederacy realized that they would need to make their flag dramatically different from the Stars and Stripes to ensure that their flag was identifiable to their soldiers on the battlefield.
THE STAINLESS BANNER
On May 1, 1863 the Confederacy would adopt their second official flag, called the Stainless Banner. This flag placed the battle flag (also known as the Southern Cross) as the canton on a white field. This flag also contained 13 stars, as the original 7 states had been joined by 4 more: Virginia (April 17, 1861), Arkansas (May 6, 1861), Tennessee (May 7, 1861), and North Carolina (May 21, 1861). And don't worry, my math isn't off, I know that that 7 + 4 does not equal 13. However, 2 stars were added to represent the states of Kentucky and Missouri, although the efforts of these states to secede would fail, and they would remain "boarder states" for the duration of the war.
This flag was first used to be draped over the casket of Stonewall Jackson while his body laid in state in Richmond following his death. Despite this historic start, this iteration of the flag would not last long, because although this flag was visibly different from the Stars and Stripes, it posed a different visual problem. This flag could be easily be mistaken as the white flag of surrender, especially when there was little wind.
THIRD NATIONAL FLAG
After complaints of the Stainless Banner being to easily identified as a flag of truce, the Confederate legislature voted to add a red bar to the flag on March 4, 1865. However, this proved to be a futile effort, as the war ended only a few weeks later.
Now if you have made it this far in this post, you are most likely thinking, but none of these are THE Confederate flag. The flag we see adorning Confederate Graves, the General Lee driven by the Duke Boys, flying off the back of southern boys pick up trucks, or accompanying a KKK rally. Where is "the" flag of the Confederacy? Well, technically speaking "THE" Confederate Flag was never used in a official capacity to represent the Confederate States of America as a sovereign nation. Instead that version of the flag is known as the Confederate Navy Jack, and was simply a battle glaf not an official flag of a nation.
CONFEDERATE NAVY JACK
The flag used by the Confederate Navy from 1863 onward is the flag most identifiable with the Confederacy. The Confederate Navy Jack was simply the rectangular version of the battle flag used by the Confederate Army. (As a battle flag it was nearly always used in a square format, although Gen. Joseph Johnston adopted an elongated version in 1864.) It pulled the Southern Cross from the Stainless Banner and made it the focus of the flag.
Although this flag can be associated with slavery and racism simply by the argument that the Southern States fought the Civil War in order to protect the institution of slavery, the real racist over tones associated with this flag are a product of many groups and incidents that happened long after the guns of the Civil War had fallen silent. However, that is a topic that is deep enough to deserve it's own post in the future.
My hope with this post is to simply educate people on the real history of the Confederate flags as it relates to an official symbol of the Confederate Government. IT is not political and it does not disagree or negate any negative feelings related to the most recognizable of a Confederate symbols.
If you would like to learn more about the history of the Confederate Flag and it's impact over the years, I would highly recommend you listen to a lecture done by the Gettysburg National Military Park entitled "Furled and Unfurled: A history of the Confederate Battle Flag at Gettysburg" back in 2016. You can use the following link to listen to the lecture on Youtube.
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