History of the Confederate Flag
Posted By : manager
Posted : December 19, 2022
The History of the Confederate Flag
The Confederacy’s first official national flag often called the Stars and Bars, flew from March 4, 1861, until May 1, 1863.
When the Union invaded the South in April 1861, the First National Flag was the first to be used by the Confederate Army on the battlefield.
After the Battle of First Manassas in Virginia, the first major battle of the war, the Confederate Army stopped using this flag on the battlefield, because from a distance it created confusion for being so similar to the Union’s Flag.
However, the First National flag was kept as the Confederacy’s National flag for 2 more years.
After the Battle of First Manassas, a new square design was created for The Army of Northern Virginia’s Battle Flag, which was sometimes called the Soldiers Flag or the Southern Cross. This Battle Flag could be instantly recognized as being that of the Confederate Army, thereby eliminating the previous similarities between the First National flag and the flag of the Union. In May 1863 the Second National Flag was designed by taking the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia and placing it on the uppermost staff corner, with the rest of the field being white. The problem with the Second National design was that when the flag was not flying, it could be confused with a flag of truce. As a result, a Third National Confederate flag was commissioned in March of 1865 by adding a red bar on the fly side.
From the end of the war until the present day, the rectangular Confederate Flag (originally the flag of the Army of Tennessee or The Confederate Naval Jack), caught on as the emblem of the Confederacy.