National Flags
of the Confederacy
The Bonnie Blue Flag - Secessionist Movment Flag
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"The Bonnie Blue Flag"
The "Bonnie Blue flag" was a banner associated at various times with the Republic of Texas, the short-lived Republic of West Florida, and the Confederate States of America at the start of the American Civil War in 1861. It consists of a single, five-pointed white star on a blue field. Its first use being as early as 1810, it is considered the first Lone Star flag in U.S. history.
When the state of Mississippi seceded from the Union in January 1861, a flag bearing a single white star on a blue field was flown from the Capitol dome. The Bonnie Blue flag was used as an unofficial flag during the early months of 1861. It was flying above the Confederate batteries that first opened fire on Fort Sumter, beginning the Civil War. In addition, many military units had their own regimental flags that they would carry into battle.
Harry Macarthy helped popularize this flag as a symbol of independence, writing the popular song "The Bonnie Blue Flag" early in 1861. Some seceding Southern states incorporated the motif of a white star on a blue field into new state flags
1st National Flag of the Confederate States of America
First flag with 7 stars (March 4 – May 18, 1861)
Flag with 9 stars (May 18 – July 2, 1861)
Flag with 11 stars(July 2 – November 28, 1861)
Last flag with 13 stars (December 10, 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. It was designed by Prussian-American artist Nicola Marschall in Marion, Alabama. The flag is very similar to the flag of the United States, and is said to resemble the Flag of Austria, with which Marschall would have been familiar. The original version of the flag featured a circle of seven white stars in the navy-blue canton, representing the seven states of the South that originally composed the Confederacy: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. The "Stars and Bars" flag was adopted on March 4, 1861, in the first temporary national capital of Montgomery, Alabama, and raised over the dome of that first Confederate Capital. Marschall also designed the Confederate army uniform. As the Confederacy grew, so did the number 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.
Over the course of the flag's use by the CSA, additional stars were added to the canton, eventually bringing the total number to thirteen reflection of the Confederacy's claims of having admitted the border states of Kentucky and Missouri, where slavery was still widely practiced. The first showing of the 13-star flag was outside the Ben Johnson House in Bardstown, Kentucky; the 13-star design was also in use as the Confederate Navy's battle ensign. The 13-star design uses the same star formation as the Betsy Ross flag. Although that was the last flag, one more flag, basic, it would be. In the spring of 1865, a seemingly unremarkable dishcloth played a crucial role in ending the Civil War. Pressed into service as the South's flag of surrender at Appomattox, this cloth became known as the Confederate Flag of Truce.
2nd National Flag of the Confederate States of America - "The Stainless Banner"
Second national flag
(May 1, 1863 – March 4, 1865)
Army of Trans-Mississippi variant captured following the Battle of Painesville, 1865
Second national flag (May 1, 1863 – March 4, 1865) as commonly manufactured
Garrison Flag of Fort Fisher, the "Southern Gibraltar"
Many designs were proposed during the solicitation for a second Confederate national flag, nearly all based on the Battle Flag. By 1863, 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 (now used as the battle flag) to be a square of two-thirds the width of the flag, having the ground red; thereupon a broad saltire of blue, bordered with white, and emblazoned with mullets or five-pointed stars, corresponding in number to that of the Confederate States."
The flag is also known as the Stainless Banner, and the matter of the person behind its design remains a point of contention. In a letter to Confederate Congressman C. J. Villeré, dated April 24, 1863, a design similar to the flag which was eventually created was proposed by General P. G. T. Beauregard, "whose earlier penchant for practicality had established the precedent for visual distinctiveness on the battlefield, proposed that 'a good design for the national flag would be the present battle-flag as Union Jack, and the rest all white or all blue'... The final version of the second national flag, adopted May 1, 1863, did just this: it set the St. Andrew's Cross of stars in the Union Jack with the rest of the civilian banner entirely white." The Confederate Congress debated whether the white field should have a blue stripe and be bordered in red. William Miles delivered a speech supporting the simple white design that was eventually approved. He argued that the battle flag must be used, but it was necessary to emblazon it for a national flag, 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 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." Confederate Congressman Peter W. Gray proposed the amendment that gave the flag its white field.[32] 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 May 1, 1863. The flags that were 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. 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 flag of truce, especially on naval ships where it was too easily soiled.
Colonel Santos Benavides of the 33rd Texas Cavalry Regiment was most famous for using the 2nd National Flag as part of his tactical strategies. He would have his Color Sergeant fold the Cross of St. Andrew portion up, fooling the Union Army into thinking his unit was surrendering, then, upon being in close enough proximity so the Union Artillery could fire at the risk of "Friendly Fire." Col. Benavides would then order an attack as the flag was unfurled, revealing the full colors of the flag. He successfully used this tactic at the Battle of Laredo and the Battle of Palmetto Ranch.
The Columbia-based Daily South Carolinian observed that it was essentially a battle flag upon a flag of 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 Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson as it lay in state in the Virginia Capitol, May 12, 1863. As a result of this first usage, the flag received the alternate nickname of the "Jackson Flag".
3rd National Flag of the Confederate States of America - "The Blood-Stained Banner"
Third national flag
(March 4, 1865 - November 4, 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 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. 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."
Due to the timing, very few of these third national flags were 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 national flag rather than the slightly rectangular one that was specified by the law.