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| The Confederate 2nd National Flag "The Stainless Banner" (May 2, 1863 - March 4, 1865) |
On this day in Southern history, Saturday, May 2, 1863, the 2nd Confederate National Flag (also known as the "Stainless Banner") was adopted by the Congress of the Confederate States of America in Richmond, Virginia.
The flag itself was designed largely by the Flag and Seal Committee appointed by the Confederate Congress under South Carolina Congressman William Porcher Miles (who is credited with helping to design the Army of Northern Virginia battle flag along with Confederate generals P.G.T. Beauregard and Joseph E. Johnston), with the final details of the new flag's design being attributed to Confederate Congressmen Peter W. Gray of Texas and Alexander R. Boteler of Virginia.
The Flag Act of 1863 reads as follows:
The flag itself was designed largely by the Flag and Seal Committee appointed by the Confederate Congress under South Carolina Congressman William Porcher Miles (who is credited with helping to design the Army of Northern Virginia battle flag along with Confederate generals P.G.T. Beauregard and Joseph E. Johnston), with the final details of the new flag's design being attributed to Confederate Congressmen Peter W. Gray of Texas and Alexander R. Boteler of Virginia.
The Flag Act of 1863 reads as follows:
"The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the flag of the Confederate States shall be as follows: the field to be white, the length double the width of the flag, 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; thereon a broad saltier of blue, bordered with white, and emblazoned with white mullets or five pointed stars, corresponding in number to that of the Confederate States."
The first official use of the Stainless Banner was to drape the coffin of General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson who died on May 10, 1863 from pneumonia he contracted in treatment of his injuries at the Battle of Chancellorsville the week before. General Jackson's body lay in state in the Confederate House of Representatives in the Virginia Capitol on Tuesday, May 12, 1863 by order of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and the first new Stainless Banner manufactured draped his coffin. The Stainless Banner was then after referred unofficially during the later half of the war by Confederate soldiers and veterans themselves as Jackson's Flag in his memory, despite the fact that Jackson himself never officially served under it.
It would be under the Stainless Banner that the Confederate States would fight under some of the more decisive battles of the War Between The States (1861-1865) although most of those battles would be during the turning point of the war when the fortunes of the fledgling Confederacy would begin to fail.
Several Confederate military units, particularly those in the Western Theater of the War, would utilize the Stainless Banner as their official battle standards -- usually with the white field minimized to avoid it being mistaken as a flag of truce in the heat of combat.
The Stainless Banner would also serve as the last official Confederate banner to serve in the war until the Confederate Navy commercial raiding vessel CSS Shenandoah formally surrendered to the crew of the British ship HMS Donegal on the River Mersey, Liverpool, England, U.K. on Monday, November 6, 1865 and the last sovereign Confederate national flag was formally lowered a full seven months after the war formally ended. The Stainless Banner naval ensign of the CSS Shenandoah is also the only Confederate national flag to circumnavigate the Earth as the official banner of a sovereign Southern nation.
One of the more famous wartime paintings of the American Civil War is the 1864 artwork The Flag of Sumter, October 20, 1863 by American artist Conrad Wise Chapman (1842 - 1910) -- who served as a sergeant in the Confederate army -- which depicts a large tattered Stainless Banner garrison flag on the ramparts of Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina with a long soldier standing guard beneath overlooking Charleston harbor.
It would be under the Stainless Banner that the Confederate States would fight under some of the more decisive battles of the War Between The States (1861-1865) although most of those battles would be during the turning point of the war when the fortunes of the fledgling Confederacy would begin to fail.
Several Confederate military units, particularly those in the Western Theater of the War, would utilize the Stainless Banner as their official battle standards -- usually with the white field minimized to avoid it being mistaken as a flag of truce in the heat of combat.
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| Stainless Banner serving as the battle flag of the 13th North Carolina Infantry with the regiment's battle honors painted onto the flag's canton. The flag was captured at The Battle of the Wilderness on May 6, 1864. Color guard Corporal Grief Mason was rifle butted to death while grasping the flag by Sergeant Stephen Rought of the 141st Pennsylvania Infantry. This was the 1st Confederate flag captured in General U.S. Grant's Overland Campaign. Image courtesy of the Museum of History, Raleigh, NC. |
The Stainless Banner would also serve as the last official Confederate banner to serve in the war until the Confederate Navy commercial raiding vessel CSS Shenandoah formally surrendered to the crew of the British ship HMS Donegal on the River Mersey, Liverpool, England, U.K. on Monday, November 6, 1865 and the last sovereign Confederate national flag was formally lowered a full seven months after the war formally ended. The Stainless Banner naval ensign of the CSS Shenandoah is also the only Confederate national flag to circumnavigate the Earth as the official banner of a sovereign Southern nation.
One of the more famous wartime paintings of the American Civil War is the 1864 artwork The Flag of Sumter, October 20, 1863 by American artist Conrad Wise Chapman (1842 - 1910) -- who served as a sergeant in the Confederate army -- which depicts a large tattered Stainless Banner garrison flag on the ramparts of Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina with a long soldier standing guard beneath overlooking Charleston harbor.
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| The Flag of Sumter, October 20, 1863 by American artist Conrad Wise Chapman (1864). |
The Stainless Banner
would serve as the national colors of the Confederate States for most
of the remainder of the War Between the States until Saturday, March 4,
1865 when it would be replaced by the 3rd Confederate National Flag just under two months before the formal dissolution of the Confederate States government on Friday, May 5, 1865 in Washington, Georgia by President Davis and his remaining cabinet.
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