The flags that were actually produced by the Richmond Clothing Depot used the 1.5:1 ratio adopted for the Confederate navy's battle ensign, rather than the official 2:1 ratio. The "Stars and Bars" flag was only selected by the Congress of March 4, 1861, the day of the deadline. Segregation and oppressiveJim Crow laws soon disenfranchised Black Southernersand members of the Ku Klux Klan terrorized them. Share. They traveled to New Orleans from Ontario to unveil the flag. Notable examples include the flag that adorned the coffin of Confederate president Jefferson Davis, that of the Washington Artillery, famed artillery unit of New Orleans, the First Florida Infantry which saw action along side many Louisiana units at Shiloh, and the Sixth Louisiana (Orleans Rifles) embroidered with the inscription Let Us Alone, Trust In God. There is an active flag restoration program and donors may contribute funds to be used toward the restoration of any flag. [citation needed]. A modification of that design was adopted on March 4, 1865, about a month before the end of the Read More symbolism of sovereignty From then on, the battle flag grew in its identification with the Confederacy and the South in general. "[32], 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 May 1, 1863. The Stars and Bars served as the first national flag of the Confederate States of America from 4 Mar. But it didnt look like that from a distanceand in the thick of battle, it was hard to tell the two apart. Early flags contain seven stars for the original seven states of the Confederacy. The blue flag with the circle of white told the Yankees that they facing the troops of Gen. Wm. In 2015, the flag came roaring back into the national consciousness when a white supremacist killed nine churchgoers at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. [50][51][52] It is also known as the rebel flag, Dixie flag, and Southern cross. First National Pattern Confederate Flag - Rockingham Community College It houses the second largest collection of Confederate Civil War items in the world. Deep South. The blue color of the diagonal saltire's "Southern Cross" was much lighter than the battle flag's dark blue. However, when the war started, the Stars and Bars confused the battlefield. p. 211. What changed?). It was generally made with a 2:3 aspect ratio, but a few very wide 1:2 ratio ensigns still survive today in museums and private collections. Confederate Flag Meaning - Historyplex March 4, 1861 The first national flag of the Confederate States of America (the "Stars and Bars") is adopted. Stars & Bars Flag | Confederate Flag - Flagman of America J. Hardee. William Miles delivered a speech supporting the simple white design that was eventually approved. But though the flag had been adopted by advocates of segregation and white supremacy, many denied that aspect of its meaning and instead insisted it stood for the Southern ideals espoused by the Lost Cause. Can we bring a species back from the brink? Although the officially designated design specified a rectangular canton, many of the flags that ended up being produced utilized a square-shaped canton. As the crowd of President Trumps supporters rioted, many hoisted the symbol of a short-lived splinter nation that tore the Union apart. A National Geographic team has made the first ascent of the remote Mount Michael, looking for a lava lake in the volcanos crater. A mans world? "[11], The flag is also known as the Stainless Banner, and the matter of the person behind its design remains a point of contention. 4 March 1861: The Confederate States of America adopts its first Of 32 Confederate 1st national flags from the states of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, a surprisingly large proportion of the Georgia flags (5 out of 25- 20%) bore seven stars in a circle. He did not share in the nostalgia for the Union that many of his fellows Southerners felt, believing that the South's flag should be completely different from that of the North. In 1961, South Carolina began to fly the Confederate flag over its state house. Three of the flags from Alabama units bore a circle of seven stars. Smith, Louisburg", University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, "The Declarations of Causes of Seceding States", "Confederate battle flag: Separating the myths from facts", "Letter of Beauregard to Villere, April 24, 1863", "Birthplace of the Confederate Battle Flag", 37 New Historical Markers for Virginia's Roadways, "2008 Virginia Marker Dedication: Birthplace of the Confederate Battle Flag", North & South The Official Magazine of the Civil War Society, "Why the Confederate Flag Made a 20th Century Comeback", "Confederate flag removed: A history of the divisive symbol", "Trump keeps fighting a Confederate flag battle many supporters have conceded", "Majority Of Southerners Now View The Confederate Flag As A Racist Symbol, Poll Finds", "What the Confederate flag means in America today", "American Electorate Continues to Favor Leaving Confederate Relics in Place", "National Tracking Poll #2107045 / July 09-12, 2021 / Crosstabulation Results", Active autonomist and secessionist movements, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Flags_of_the_Confederate_States_of_America&oldid=1142855463, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2023, Articles with incomplete citations from July 2020, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Wikipedia articles with style issues from July 2022, Pages using infobox flag with unknown parameters, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2021, Articles with unsourced statements from November 2015, Articles needing additional references from September 2021, All articles needing additional references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. Over the years the flag was changed by adding and . The editor of the Charleston Mercury expressed a similar view: "It seems to be generally agreed that the 'Stars and Bars' will never do for us. The 1879 flag was introduced by Georgia state senator Herman H. Perry and was adopted to memorialize Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War. STARS AND BARS Images of Lone Star versions of the first Confederate national flag. The Confederacy's first official national flag, often called the Stars and Bars, flew from March 4, 1861, to May 1, 1863. The largely residential area and its neighbors still have excellent bars to choose from that cater to different scene preferences. The battle flag of Gen. Polks Corps saw action from Shiloh through the final surrender of the Army of Tennessee. Native American Flags. So Gen. Pierre G. T. Beauregard decided that he needed to design a different national flag so that it would . The Flag Act of 1865, passed by the Confederate congress near the very end of the War, describes the flag in the following language: The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the flag of the Confederate States shall be as follows: The width two-thirds of its length, with the union (now used as the battle flag) to be in width three-fifths of the width of the flag, and so proportioned as to leave the length of the field on the side of the union twice the width of the field below it; to have the ground red and a broad blue saltire thereon, bordered with white and emblazoned with mullets or five pointed stars, corresponding in number to that of the Confederate States; the field to be white, except the outer half from the union to be a red bar extending the width of the flag. Its a story of rebellion, racism, and disagreement over the true history of the Civil Warand as the controversy over its use during the Capitol riots shows, its divisive even 160 years after it was designed. Blue Collar. Currently 24 Flags are on display, while 9 conserved flags await framing, and several others are being considered for conservation. June 14, 2020. Unauthorized use is prohibited. The three states with coasts along the Gulf (Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana) accounted for 39 flags in the survey. The first national flag of the Confederate States of America (the These Confederate national colors seem to have measured 4 feet on their hoist by 5 1/2 feet on the fly. Enterprise. The stars are usually arranged in a circle and number seven or more. Save up to 30% when you upgrade to an image pack. The Congress inspected two other finalist designs on March 4: One was a "Blue ring or circle on a field of red", while the other consisted of alternating red and blue stripes with a blue canton containing stars. [ 1] The Stars and Bars flag was adopted March 4, 1861 in Montgomery, Alabama and raised over the dome of . What is wind chill, and how does it affect your body? "[40], According to Coski, the Saint Andrew's Cross (also used on the flag of Scotland as a white saltire on a blue field) had no special place in Southern iconography at the time. The garrison flag of the Confederate forces On April 23, 1863, the Savannah Morning News editor William Tappan Thompson, with assistance from William Ross Postell, a Confederate blockade runner, published an editorial championing a design featuring the battle flag on a white background he referred to later as "The White Man's Flag," a name which never caught on. on the subject of Regimental or badge flags made of red with two blue bars crossing each other diagonally on which shall be introduced the stars, We would then on the field of battle know our friends from our Enemies.[18]. The flags were known as the "Stars and Bars&qu. Hetty Cary and her sister and cousin made prototypes. Flag flown by Confederate Missouri regiments during the Vicksburg campaign. [12], 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. On the border of Fairfax, Beverly Grove, and La Brea, Blue Collar serves up Art Deco and noir vibes. James B. Walton submitted a battle flag design essentially identical to Miles' except with an upright Saint George's cross, but Beauregard chose the diagonal cross design.[41]. What to Know about "Stars And Bars" Confederate National Flag? HistorianWilliam Sturkey, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina and author of Hattiesburg: An American City in Black and White, says that racists turn to the symbol again and again when they feel embattled and threatened. Unit abbreviations on two of the surviving flags were applied with separately cut and applied red cotton letters. Similarly the patriotic ladies of the South who prepared most of the company and regimental flags for the military units raised in the Southern states chose whatever proportions and sizes seemed aesthetic. [30] When Thompson received word the Congress had adopted the design with a blue stripe, he published an editorial on April 28 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. Then, as Confederate veterans began to die in the early 20th century, groups like the United Daughters of the Confederacy pushed to commemorate themand make their version of history the official doctrine of Southern states. Stars and bars may refer to: Stars and Bars (flag), the first (1861-1863) flag of the Confederate States of America Stars and Bars (1988 film), 1988 comedy starring Daniel Day-Lewis Stars and Bars (1917 film), 1917 silent film comedy directed by Victor Heerman Confederate Flag History - Civil War FIRST NATIONAL FLAGS FOR THE CONFEDERATE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. Its popularity persisted, and over the ensuing decades, the battle flag became a generic symbol of rebellion spotted on TV shows like The Dukes of Hazzardand on stage with bands likeLynyrd Skynyrd. For use of Confederate symbols in modern society and popular culture, see, Flags of the Confederate States of America. After taking command of the main Confederate army in the west, Gen. Jos E. Johnson adopted this variation of the Virginia Battle Flag for the Army of Tennessee. A Confederate battle flag distinct from the flag of the Confederacy, the "Stars and Bars," was created following the first major battle of the Civil War, at Bull Run near Manassas, Virginia, in July 1861, because in the heat of battle soldiers and commanders confused the Stars and Bars with the Union army's "Stars and Stripes." Because of its similarity to the U.S. flag, the Stars and Bars was sometimes confused with the Stars and Stripes in the smoke of battle. It resembles the Yankee flag, and that is enough to make it unutterably detestable." While no standard proportions or sizes prevailed nationwide in the Confederate States of America, a survey of 112 identified company or regimental flags from the cis-Mississippi states that conform to the pattern of the Confederate 1st national flag does indicate that several regional variations do predominate. In February of 1863 the purchase of these 1st national flags ceased when General Beauregard instituted the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, as modified by Charlston Clothing Depot. The garrison flag was to measure 18 feet on the hoist by 28 feet on the fly, and the storm flag was to be half that size 9 feet on the hoist by 14 feet on the fly. Adopted in February 1865, as a result from complaints made by the Confederate Navy that he predominate white color of the second national flag caused it be mistaken for a flag of surrender. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. Many of the proposed designs paid homage to the Stars and Stripes, due to a nostalgia in early 1861 that many of the new Confederate citizens felt towards the Union. Heres the technology that helped scientists find itand what it may have been used for. Men fly a massive Confederate flag during a Black Lives Matter protest in Charleston, South Carolina, in August, 2020. Was there a cavalry size Army of Northern Virginia battle flag? It is commonly referred to as the Rebel Flag, and often mistakenly called the Stars & Bars. The First Official Flag of the Confederacy. [47], The Second Confederate Navy Jack was a rectangular cousin of the Confederate Army's battle flag and was in use from 1863 until 1865. Georgia adopted a new state flag in 2000, which contained a small inset image of the 1956 flag, along with other historical flags. Thompson stated in April 1863 that he disliked the adopted flag "on account of its resemblance to that of the abolition despotism against which we are fighting."[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. These include flags displayed in states; cities, towns and counties; schools, colleges and universities; private organizations and associations; and individuals. Our acid dye process saturates right through the flag producing deep and vivid colors that never crack or peel. Return to the Confederate Flags Home Page. The "Stars and Bars" was unpopular among Confederates for its resemblance to the United States flag, which caused . The first flag was raised over the capitol in Montgomery by Miss Letitia Christian Tyler, the granddaughter of President John Tyler. [18] He turned to his aide, who happened to be William Porcher Miles, the former chairman of the Confederate Congress's Committee on the Flag and Seal. Twitter. [12], Flag of Alabama (obverse)(January 11, 1861), Flag of Alabama (reverse)(January 11, 1861), Flag of South Carolina (January 26, 1861), Cherokee Braves Regiment (modern-day Oklahoma)[citation needed], Flag of the Choctaw Brigade (modern-day Oklahoma) (adopted in 1860)[citation needed], Flag of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation[citation needed], Flag made for the Confederate Seminole (reconstruction; exact shades and layout unknown)[36]. Although this design was never a national flag, it is the most commonly recognized symbol of the Confederacy. These two designs were lost, and we only know of them thanks to an 1872 letter sent by William Porcher Miles to P. G. T. Beauregard. Moise liked the design but asked that "the symbol of a particular religion not be made the symbol of the nation." Variant of the first national flag with 13 stars, The second national flag of the Confederate States of America. After the battle, General P. G. T. Beauregard wrote that he was "resolved then to have [our flag] changed if possible, or to adopt for my command a 'Battle flag', which would be Entirely different from any State or Federal flag". The red Saint Georges cross is symbolic of the Episcopal church of which Gen. Polk was Bishop of Louisiana. Even a few fourteen- and fifteen-starred ensigns were made to include states expected to secede but never completely joined the Confederacy. The version produced even today for the Stars and Bars, or First National Confederate, features the original seven star pattern in the blue canton. Find the perfect the stars and bars flag stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. As the Confederacy grew, so did the numbers of stars: two were added for Virginia and Arkansas in May 1861, followed by two more representing Tennessee and North Carolina in July, and finally two more for Missouri and Kentucky (while the legality of Missouri's secession is contested, neither states partisan governments achieved substantive territory or population). The Confederate "Stars & Bars" Is Still the Flag of One US State The Confederate battle flag was born of necessity after the Battle of Bull Run. Stars and bars - Wikipedia [44][45][46], The fledgling Confederate States Navy adopted and used several types of flags, banners, and pennants aboard all CSN ships: jacks, battle ensigns, and small boat ensigns, as well as commissioning pennants, designating flags, and signal flags. From the heartland of the Confederacy (Tennessee and Kentucky) 18 identified flags were surveyed. THE CONFEDERATE 1ST NATIONAL FLAG (THE STARS & BARS) AS A MILITARY FLAG. Replacing the Star and Bars in May of 1863, the first official use was at the funeral of Thomas Jonathan Stonewall Jackson. Confederate Flag Bonnie Blue Stars and Bars Battle Flag - WorldAtlas national flag consisting of seven white stars on a blue canton with a field of three alternating stripes, two red and one white. (Physical symbols of white supremacy are coming down. This pattern was embellished with the same 13 white stars that the original flag had. The 7 Best Bars Around La Brea, Los Angeles - Culture Trip Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic SocietyCopyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. Newsome was arrested, but state officials voted to remove the flag from the building the following month. The first Confederate national flag bore 7 stars representing the first seven states to secede from the U.S. and band together as the Confederate States of America: South Carolina, Mississippi . It was also challenged by Black activists and their white allies. Heres why each season begins twice. The Bonnie Blue Flag is on the right. This is the First National Flag of the Confederacy, the Stars and Bars. The flag that Miles had favored when he was chairman of the "Committee on the Flag and Seal" eventually became the battle flag and, ultimately, the Confederacy's most popular flag. ", The square "battle flag" is also properly known as "the flag of the Army of Northern Virginia". At a distance, the two national flags were hard to tell apart. The Committee began a competition to find a new national flag, with an unwritten deadline being that a national flag had to be adopted by March 4, 1861, the date of President Lincoln's inauguration. ", "Gen. Beauregard suggested the flag just adopted, or else a field of blue in place of the white." This caused major problems at the July 1861 Battle of First Manassas and during other skirmishes as some troops mistakenly fired on their own comrades. First flag with 7 stars(March 4 May 18, 1861), Flag with 11 stars(July 2 November 28, 1861), Last flag with 13 stars(November 28, 1861 May 1, 1863), The Confederacy's first official national flag, often called the Stars and Bars, flew from March 4, 1861, to May 1, 1863. Although the creating legislation for the national flag adopted by the Confederate Provisional Congress on 4 March 1861 did not specify the proportions that the new national flag was to follow, the Confederate War Department shortly afterward determined on the sizes for the military garrison and storm flags. Confederate National flag of Fort McAllister, Confederate National Flag captured from Fort Jackson, Battle flag of the 11th Mississippi Infantry Regiment used at Antietam, Surrender flag of Army of Northern Virginia. The flag adopted by the delegates to the Louisianas secession convention in January of 1861 represented Louisianas historical roots. Known as the Stars and Bars, the flag featured a white star for each Confederate state on a blue background, and three stripes, two red and one white. The groundbreaking promise of cellular housekeeping. Rogers defended his redesign as symbolizing the primary origins of the people of the Confederacy, with the saltire of the Scottish flag and the red bar from the flag of France, and having "as little as possible of the Yankee blue" the Union Army wore blue, the Confederates gray.[13]. How Long After the Battle of First Manassas did the various battle flags replace the Stars and Bars or did they ever entirely replace it? Why on some Southern Cross Battle Flags is the center or thirteenth star omitted? On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Of 23 identified 1st national flags from Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, most (16) bear eleven stars; and of these, 7 are arranged in a circle of eleven, while 5 have ten stars surrounding a center star. Johnston also specified the various sizes to be used by different types of military units. But as secession got underway, the Confederate States of America adopted a flag that riffed off the Unions stars and stripes. The very first national flag of the Confederacy was designed by Prussian artist Nicola Marschall in Marion, Alabama. The Dixiecrat-era fad flag stoked its sale on everything from T-shirts to mugs and bumper stickers. South Carolina, which had defiantly flown the banner at its capitol for years,retired it that year, and multiple retailers stopped selling merchandise featuring the flag now labeled ahate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League. The white stars on the blue field represent the original Confederate States of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas. They resemble too closely the dishonored 'Flag of Yankee Doodle' we imagine that the 'Battle Flag' will become the Southern Flag by popular acclaim." In 2000, the NAACP began a 15-year-long economicboycott of South Carolina because of its use of the flag. The Atlantic. The stars represent the seven seceded states of the U.S. Though it hassome Black supporters, it remains shorthand for a defiant South and all that implies. All rights reserved. The Southern Cross still has plenty of supporters who insist their love of the flag is about heritage, not hate. In a 2019 survey of nearly 35,000 U.S. adults, polling firm YouGovfound that although a plurality of Americans (41 percent) think the flag symbolizes racism, 34 percent think it symbolizes heritage. The committee rejected the idea by a four-to-one vote, after which Beauregard proposed the idea of having two flags. The ANV was never the official flag of the Confederacy and was not called The Stars and Bars. Since it is known that Hayden & Whilden from Charleston provided eleven star unit flags for the Confederate Quartermasters Department, the number of eleven star flags made in this region undoubtedly was even larger. [15], A monument in Louisburg, North Carolina, claims the "Stars and Bars" "was designed by a son of North Carolina / Orren Randolph Smith / and made under his direction by / Catherine Rebecca (Murphy) Winborne. Pinterest. This particular battle ensign was the only example taken around the world, finally becoming the last Confederate flag lowered in the Civil War; this happened aboard the commerce raider CSS Shenandoah in Liverpool, England, on November 7, 1865. [42] The flag's stars represented the number of states in the Confederacy. The committee asked the public to submit thoughts and ideas on the topic and was, as historian John M. Coski puts it, "overwhelmed by requests not to abandon the 'old flag' of the United States." 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. The similarity between the stars and bars and the stars and strips caused many cases of mistaken identity during the first battle of Manassas or Bull Run in July of 1861. The distance between the stars decreased as the number of states increased, reaching thirteen when the secessionist factions of Kentucky and Missouri joined in late 1861. The flag was issued in the fall of 1861. -"Letter from Richmond" by the Richmond correspondent of the, Journal of the Confederate Congress, Volume 6, p.477, John D. Wright, The Language of the Civil War, p.284, Healy, Donald T.; Orenski, Peter J. In a Feb. 10 memo to its public affairs offices, the Defense Department said that having service members carry the U.S. flag horizontally or land it on the ground after a parachute jump is no . Long COVID patients turn to unproven treatments, Why evenings can be harder on people with dementia, This disease often goes under-diagnosedunless youre white, This sacred site could be Georgias first national park, See glow-in-the-dark mushrooms in Brazils other rainforest, 9 things to know about Holi, Indias most colorful festival, Anyone can discover a fossil on this beach. The red space above and below to be the same width as the white. The roughly 5,000-year-old human remains were found in graves from the Yamnaya culture, and the discovery may partially explain their rapid expansion throughout Europe. Despite the 9:14 proportions established by the Confederate War Department, other civilian makers of the Stars & Bars soon gravitated to different proportions that included 2:3, 3:5, and 1:2. ), and elements of the design by related similar female descendants organizations of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, (U.D.C. The Adopt-A-Flag Program was initiated. To this end, he proposed his own flag design featuring a blue saltire on white Fimbriation with a field of red. Find the perfect The stars and bars flag stock video clips. William Porcher Miles, however, was not really happy with any of the proposals. The first national flag of the Confederate States of America was created in 1861 and had seven stars to represent the breakaway states of South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama,. In an effort to avoid the visual confusion, General Pierre Beauregardcommissioned a new battle flag design. (Miles had originally planned to use a blue St. George's Cross like that of the South Carolina Sovereignty Flag, but was dissuaded from doing so.) In the early summer of 1861, the army was renamed the Army of Northern Virginia (ANV) commanded by Gen. R.E. How the Confederate battle flag became an enduring symbol of - History It was designed by Prussian -American artist Nicola Marschall in Marion, Alabama, and is said to resemble the Flag of Austria, with which Marschall would have been familiar. Thereafter, the number of stars continued to increase until Tennessee gained her seat as the 11th State on 2 July 1861. Miles described his rejected national flag design to Beauregard. This flag saw action in the battles in the west. Copy link. A rejected national flag design was also used as a battle flag by the Confederate Army and featured in the "Stainless Banner" and "Blood-Stained Banner" designs. The First National Flag of the Confederate States of America, 13 Stars and Bars Flag was used during the Civil War. Jefferson Davis State Historic Site & Museum. Beauregard and Joseph Johnston urged that a new Confederate flag be designed for battle. The Stars and Bars Flag is the first official flag of the Confederacy. [49], Though never having historically represented the Confederate States of America as a country, nor having been officially recognized as one of its national flags, the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia and its variants are now flag types commonly referred to as the Confederate Flag. A crowd of white teenagers protest school integration in Montogmery, Alabama, in 1963.