CONFEDERACY STARS AND BARS

HISTORY OF THE FLAG OF THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY

THE STARS AND BARS

The flags of the Confederacy had curious bits of history attached to their existence.

On March 5, 1861, the provisional Confederate Congress recommended that the flag of the Confederate States of America shall consist of a red field with a white space extending horizontally

through the center equal in width to one third the width of the flag. , the red spaces above and below to be of the same width as the white, the union, blue, extending down through the white spaces and stopping at the lower red space, in the center of the union a circle of white stars corresponding in

number with the States of the Confederacy . This flag was first displayed to the public 4 March,

1861, the same day of Lincolns inauguration over the State House in Montgomery, Alabama .

On the battlefield this flag bore such a similarity to the Union flag that in September 1861,

for the Army of The Potomac, Generals Beauregard and Johnson created what afterward became

known as the battle flag. It had a red ground with a blue diagonal cross emblazoned with white stars, one for each state and this flag was adopted by all troops east of the Mississippi.

The first design , bearing objections of resemblance t the stars and stripes and having no

reverse , Confederate Senate in April 1863 adopted a white flag with a broad blue star in its center

which was amended by inserting the battleflag design as the union with a plain white ground for the field. This arrangement proved faulty as at a distance the large white field resembled a flag of truce and also as combined with the union was similar to the English Ensign.

So, on 4 February, 1865, the Confederate Senate adopted a third change; “the width, two thirds the length, with the union, now used as a battleflag, 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 below it.

To have a ground of red and broad blue saltier thereon, bordered with white and emblazoned with five pointed stars corresponding in number to that of the Confederate States, the field to be white except for

the outer half from the union which shall be a red bar the width of the flag.

Source: Sunday issue, 8 July, 1900, The Hatchet, of Washingon, D.C. Reprinted from the

Ohio Valley Manufacrurer newspaper.

Abstract by Harrison Howeth, Lewes, Delaware July 15 , 2017