The Second Confederate National Flag -- The Stainless Banner (1863 - 1865)

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 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.

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. 

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.

The Wartime Service Of Lieutenant John Grimball C.S.N. (1840 - 1922) & The Last Sovereign Confederate Flag

Lieutenant John Grimball (1840-1922)
in Confederate Naval Uniform.
Photo taken in Paris, France in 1864 by
French photographer Georges Penabert.
Photograph courtesy U.S. Library of Congress.

Confederate naval veteran and South Carolina's own Lieutenant John Grimball, CSN, holds two unique distinctions in Southern history as both one of the longest serving Confederate servicemen of the War Between the States (1861-1865) and serving under the only sovereign Confederate national flag to circumnavigate the Earth, as well as the last official Confederate flag to formally surrender seven months after the war ended.

He would be present for the very first shots of the war, and also be there to surrender the last official Confederate military holdout.

John Grimball was born in Charleston, South Carolina on Saturday, April 18, 1840, the fifth of nine children to wealthy planters John Berkley Grimball (1800-1892) and Margret Ann "Meta" Morris Grimball (1810-1881).

His father, John Berkeley Grimball (1800-1892), a graduate from Princeton University, grew rice at his plantation home, Pinebury, located in Colleton County, South Carolina south of Charleston. In 1830, the elder Grimball married Margaret "Meta" Morris, whose family owned the nearby Grove Plantation. The plantation was originally built by George Washington Morris (1799–1834), a grandson of Lewis Morris (1726–1798), signer of the Declaration of Independence. John inherited the Grove from his wife’s family in 1858, and they owned several African-American slaves. John Berkeley Grimball became a South Carolina State Senator and would later cast his vote in favor of secession from the United States in December 1860. 

Young John Grimball (Jack to his family and Johnnie to his close friends) left home in 1854, at the age of 14, to join the Navy. He earned an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, graduating 14th out of 15 in his class in 1858 becoming an Ensign in the U.S. Navy. One of his classmates and fellow graduates was future Spanish-American War (1898) hero Admiral George Dewey (1837-1917).

Now 18 year old John Grimball only U.S. Navy service was aboard the frigate USS Macedonian for two years and saw peacetime service in the Mediterranean Sea and the Caribbean; notably when the American ship and her crew assisted in the refloating of the British ship HMS Curacoa on Thursday, October 28, 1858 when the later ran aground on the Pelican Reef, off Smyrna, Ottoman Empire (modern-day Turkey) a few days before.

However, any dreams that the young man might have had of earning military glory in the U.S. Navy blue would soon come to an end with the secession of South Carolina two years later.

On Christmas Eve, Monday, December 24th, 1860, just four days after South Carolina seceded from the Union, Lieutenant Jack Grimball resigned his commission and offered his services to South Carolina Governor Francis W. Pickens (1805-1869). For this act he was publicly praised in an article by the Charleston Courier on Saturday, December 29, 1860, stating: "Nothing less can be expected of true sons of the South."

Four of John's five brothers also joined the newly sovereign State of South Carolina and Confederate service in infantry and artillery units. The fifth brother was too young to have served.

Two brothers, Private Berkley Grimball (1833-1899) and Private Arthur Grimball (1842-1894) both served in the SC Light Artillery, Parker's Company, also known as the Marion Artillery.

The third brother, Doctor Lewis Morris Grimball (1835-1901) served initially in Company I, 2nd South Carolina Infantry Regiment, and then in Company B, 11th South Carolina Infantry (St. Paul's Rifles) before being assigned as a surgeon to various units for the remainder of the war. 

The last brother, Lieutenant William Heyward Grimball (1837-1864) served in Company E, 1st Regiment South Carolina Artillery in Charleston. He would be the only brother to die in the war on Wednesday, July 27, 1864 of typhoid fever contracted at James Island, South Carolina.

Grimball’s first assignment as an officer in the military of the State of South Carolina was in the garrison of Fort Moultrie. The coastal fort had been occupied by Federal forces until a few days prior on Wednesday, December 26, 1860 when the garrison commander, U.S. Major Robert Anderson, moved his men to nearby Fort Sumter in the center of Charleston Harbor, which offered better opportunities for defense.

Meanwhile, the outgoing U.S. President James Buchanan dispatched the unarmed merchant steamer ship Star of the West out of New York Harbor, with a cargo of supplies and military reinforcements for Major Anderson and his men.

Despite the fact the Star of the West was a civilian ship, when news of the mission spread to South Carolina, it was interpreted as an act of aggression by what was now seen as a foreign power.

When the ship arrived at Charleston Harbor on Wednesday, January 9, 1861, John Grimball and the rest of the defenders of Charleston were ready to greet them.

The ship was fired upon by Grimball and the defenders of Fort Moultrie and by cadets from the Citadel Military Academy manning a battery on nearby Morris Island. Seventeen shots were fired at the steamer, which was hit twice in the hull causing only minor damage. These shots are considered by many historians as the actual the first shots of the war. Although Star of the West itself suffered no major damage, her captain considered it too dangerous to continue and turned about to leave, abandoning the mission and returning to New York Harbor.

Two months later, after six more Southern States withdrew from the Federal Union, the Confederate States of America was officially formed on Monday, March 4, 1861 in Montgomery, Alabama. John Grimball officially joined the navy of the new American nation shortly afterward, receiving a commission as a Master (or sailing master-warrant officer) by Confederate Secretary of the Navy, Stephen R. Mallory. 

Still serving at Fort Moultrie, John Grimball was present for, and participated in, the bombardment of Fort Sumter on Friday, April 12, 1861 -- the official start of the war. The fort surrendered to the new Confederate States authorities two days later.

Master John Grimball's first naval service with the new Confederate States Navy was aboard the gunboat CSS Lady Davis -- named in honor of Confederate First Lady Varina Davis. At that time, the little gunboat served as flagship of Commodore Josiah Tattnall III's Savannah Defense Squadron, consisting of CSS Savannah, CSS Sampson, and CSS Resolute.

In spring of 1862, Grimball was promoted to Second Lieutenant and ordered to Memphis, Tennessee to serve aboard the casemate ironclad, CSS Arkansas, under the command of CSN Lieutenant Issac Brown. It would be serving aboard the Arkansas commanding the ship's bow gun that Lieutenant Grimball would receive his first serious taste of naval combat when the ship would make her famous run down the Yazoo and Mississippi Rivers.

At the mouth of the Yazoo River on Tuesday, July 15, 1862, the CSS Arkansas engaged in battle with the three Union ships sent to intercept the ironclad: the timberclad gunboat USS Tyler, the ram ship USS Queen of the West, and the ironclad USS Carondelet -- the later causing the heaviest damage to the Arkansas in the engagement. The battle between the ironclads caused heavy damage to the Carondelet and inflicted 35 casualties. About 25 of the Arkansas crew had been killed or wounded during the battle.

The Arkansas would continue on her way downriver towards the city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, where it would fight its way through USN Commodore David G. Farragut's Union fleet on the Mississippi River, damaging 16 of the Union ships. The Confederate ship had fired 97 shots during the day's fighting, of which only 24 of which had missed the Union ships. The Arkansas received an enthusiastic welcome by the citizens of Vicksburg.

These actions would result in Farragut withdrawing his fleet downriver and giving the Confederacy a temporary reprieve on the Mississippi River. Out of the Arkansas crew of 160 men, 30 became casualties during these engagements -- 12 killed and 18 wounded, including several men from Grimball's gun crew.

The ironclad CSS Arkansas would soon meet her end when she ran into serious engine problems and was ultimately scuttled by her crew on the morning of Wednesday, August 6, 1862 near Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She was the shortest serving Confederate Naval ironclad of the war -- about 21 days -- but one of the toughest.

Lieutenant Grimball was then transferred to the ironclad CSS Baltic in Mobile, Alabama, where he would serve from late August of 1862 till May of 1863 helping to lay torpedoes (Naval mines) in the Mobile Bay.

On Monday, May 18, 1863, John Grimball left Wilmington, North Carolina aboard the paddle-steamer CSS Robert E. Lee, a fast blockade runner that was bound to Bermuda, and then on to Liverpool, England, U.K. His assignment there was to assist Confederate agents in purchasing and building of blockade runners and commerce raiders for the fledgling C.S. Navy. 

Despite Great Britain officially being neutral in the American conflict, Liverpool was the unofficial home port of the Confederate overseas fleet. Confederate Naval Commander and foreign agent James D. Bulloch (1823-1901) was based in the city. The city provided ships, crews, munitions, medical supplies, and provisions of war.

Lieutenant Grimball's new duties would also have him travel across the English Channel to France (also officially neutral, and more strictly so than Britain) to help find crews and supplies for the Confederate fleet. He was in the French port city of Cherbourg on Saturday, June 11, 1864, when the commerce raider CSS Alabama arrived for a much-needed refit and resupply.

The Alabama, under the command of CSN Captain Raphael Seemes (1809-1877), had just completed her two-year voyage during which she'd captured or destroyed 65 Union merchant ships. Grimball and another officer volunteered to serve onboard Alabama if needed, but the French authorities prohibited them from joining the ship’s crew. Eight days later on Sunday, June 19, 1864, the CSS Alabama met and engaged in battle with the USS Kearsarge just off the Cherbourg harbor entrance and was sunk. Grimball witnessed the battle from shore.

It would be back in Liverpool that Lieutenant Grimball would soon find himself a more permanent home, as well as his greatest adventure of the war, as a top lieutenant aboard the famous Confederate warship CSS Shenandoah captained by CSN Commander James Iredell Waddell.

Originally built by the British in Glasgow, Scotland in 1863 as the troop transport ship Sea King, the vessel was secretly purchased by the Confederate States Navy along with a support vessel, the Laurel.

The Sea King left London on October 8, 1864, allegedly for an announced trading voyage to Bombay, India. The Laurel sailed from Liverpool the same day, carrying the Confederate officers and crew. The two ships rendezvoused at Funchal, Madeira, an island off the coast of Portugal a few days later. There, it was refitted as a battle cruiser with several naval guns, ammunition, and ship's stores.

The new Confederate cruiser was commissioned on Wednesday, October 19, 1864, with the symbolic lowering the British Union Jack and the raising the "Stainless Banner" and the former Sea King was renamed the CSS Shenandoah, a ship that would earn both world-wide acclaim and infamy depending on who you ask.

The destruction of the North's whaling industry was part of the Confederate naval strategy to damage the North's economy and commerce, hindering their war effort. It was also hoped that the actions of these commercial raiders would draw Union warships from the blockade of Southern ports to protect the whalers.

To those ends, Commander Bulloch issued the following orders to the CSS Shenandoah:

Sir: You are about to proceed upon a cruise in the far-distant Pacific, into the seas and among the islands frequented by the great American whaling fleet, a source of abundant wealth to our enemies and a nursery for their seamen. It is hoped that you may be able to greatly damage and disperse that fleet, even if you do not succeed in utterly destroying it. 

Detailed Instructions from Commander Bulloch, C.S. Navy,
to Lieutenant J.I. Waddell, C.S. Navy, October 5, 1864.

The CSS Shenandoah undergoing repairs at dry dock in her extended stopover in
Melbourne, Australia in early February, 1865.
The 2nd Confederate National Naval Jack flies proudly above.
Photo courtesy of the U.S. Naval History and Heritage archives.

For twelve-and-a-half months of service the CSS Shenandoah undertook commerce raiding around the world -- mostly the significant being New England whaling ships largely from New Bedford, Massachusetts. These commerce raids resulted in the capture and sinking (or bonding) of approximately 38 Union merchant vessels between Sunday, October 30, 1864 and Wednesday, June 28, 1865.

John Grimball was one of five lieutenants to serve among the Shenandoah’s crew, along with fellow South Carolinian, Dr. Charles Edward Lining (1834-1897) the ship's surgeon. Lieutenant Grimball served as second officer (third in command) and frequently led the boarding parties that captured the crews of the U.S. whaling ships encountered at sea. Once the crews were removed, most of the enemy vessels and their cargo were burned rather than sent into port as prizes.

Shenandoah was said to have destroyed 32 vessels, ransomed 6 others, and taken 1,053 Yankee prisoners (who were paroled and sent via neutral ships to American ports). In all the value of the vessels and cargoes destroyed by the raider, according to her officers' calculations, came to $1.4 million.

Ironically, it would be on June 28, 1865 -- five days after the surrender of the last Confederate land forces by Brigadier General Stand Watie at Doakesville, Choctaw Nation, Oklahoma -- that the CSS Shenandoah would have the most lucrative day of her career, Shenandoah encountered and decimated nine New England whaling ships working together in the Bering Strait in an 11-hour span.

It was here that the CSS Shenandoah fired the last actual shots of the American Civil War, across the bow of the New England whaler Nile and forcing her surrender almost three months after General Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia on Sunday, April 9, 1865. Lieutenant Grimball himself is reported to have fired this last shot.
 
Two months later, on Wednesday, August 2, 1865, while traveling south towards the US west coast to wreak havoc on more shipping, the crew of the Shenandoah confirmed the news of the end of the war from a British vessel. The crew then removed and stored away their guns, which would never be fired again -- and sailed east around Cape Horn into the South Atlantic and returning to Liverpool where she began her journey a year before to formally surrender to neutral Great Britain.

British citizens stood on the shores in awe to see the Shenandoah arriving on the morning of Monday, November 6, 1865; her Confederate National colors flying proudly from her mast -- the last one to do so as a representative of a sovereign Southern nation.

Captain Waddell maneuvered his ship near the British warship HMS Donegal, dropping anchor in the river. The CSS Shenandoah was then formally surrendered his command to Royal Navy Captain James Dorset Paynter of Donegal. The Confederate flag was lowered again for the very last time under the watch of both the British Navy personal and now former Confederate Navy crews.

Lieutenant Grimball, the young man who'd seen the first shots fired at the Star of the West and at Fort Sumter in 1861, now witnessed the surrender of the last official Confederate military holdout. His was the longest service of any Confederate military officer in the War.

During her incredible thirteen month voyage of 58,000 miles (or 93,342 kilometers) -- about 50,400 nautical miles -- the CSS Shenandoah became the only Confederate Navy warship to circumnavigate the Earth.

The Shenandoah crossed the equator four times, covering points from its departure at Liverpool, around South Africa's Cape of Good Hope, into the Antarctic waters of the Southern Ocean, across the Indian Ocean with an extended stopover in Australia, then from the South Pacific north into the Arctic Ocean above the Aleutian Islands into the Bering Strait, then back south around South America's Cape Horn, then back into the Atlantic Ocean and returning to Liverpool to surrender. 

Like her sister ship, the famed raider CSS Alabama, the CSS Shenandoah never made port in a Southern State during the course of the War Between The States. Her Stainless Banner Naval Jack is the only sovereign Confederate national banner to circle the globe during wartime -- a voyage that covered all five of the world's oceans and all of the traditional "seven seas" -- and the very last to be lowered in surrender.

The crew of the Shenandoah were held over briefly by British authorities before being released on parole. It was ruled that the crew of the Confederate sailors did not violate international law in carrying on their duty and were not guilty of piracy.

Grimball, and some of the other former Confederate officers, feared reprisals from the United States government for their raids after the formal end of the war. Grimball left Great Britain and stayed in Mexico where he and a few others worked for a time on a ranch.

A year later, after learning that the government would not charge him or any of his fellow officers with "piracy", John Grimball returned to South Carolina where he began a career in law, practicing in his native Charleston at first, then in New York City. He later returned to Charleston in the 1880s. In 1885, he would marry to Mary Georgianna Barnwell (1857-1920) and the couple would have two sons: Arthur (1886-1951) and William Heyward (1886-1964).

Lieutenant John Grimball died on Christmas Day, Monday December 25, 1922 at the age of 82; and is buried in historic Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston, South Carolina, USA.

The grave of Lt. John Grimball at
Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston, SC.
Photo courtesy of Find A Grave.

John Grimball wouldn't be the last member of the Grimball family to serve the State of South Carolina and his country in time of war.

First Lieutenant John "Jack" Grimball (1914-1991) was named for his grandfather and served in World War II with the U.S Army's 9th Armored Division (Co. A, 14th Tank Battalion) where he earned the Silver Star medal at the Battle of the Bulge (December 1944 - January 1945). Lieutenant Grimball was also awarded a Distinguished Service Cross for his role in the capture of the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine River at Remagen, Germany on Wednesday, March 7, 1945 as part of Operation Lumberjack.

The Naval Ensign of the CSS Shenandoah behind a replica model of the vessel.
The flag is currently on display at the American Civil War Museum in Richmond, Virginia, USA.

The special thanks to the following sources used for this article:

John Grimball family papers, 1804-1893, South Carolina Historical Society, Charleston, South Carolina.

Sea of Gray: The Around the World Odyssey of the Confederate Raider Shenandoah. Hill and Wang. 2006.
The Voyage of the CSS Shenandoah: A Memorable Cruise. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2014.
Waddell and James D Horan. C.S.S. Shenandoah: The Memoirs of Lieutenant Commanding James I. Waddell. Bluejacket Books. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1996.
The American Civil War Museum, Richmond, Virginia.
The U.S. Library of Congress.
The U.S. Naval History & Heritage Command archives.

The Origins Of Confederate Flag Day

(This article was reposted from March of 2017 -- and still remains relevant today.)
 
March 4th is recognized throughout the American Southland as Confederate Flag Day. 

It was on this day in 1861 that the First Confederate National Flag "The Stars and Bars" became the national banner of the Confederate States of America and was raised above what was then the Confederate Capitol in Montgomery, Alabama; one month before the beginning of the War Between The States (American Civil War 1861-1865) on Friday, April 12th of the same year. 

First Confederate National Flag "Stars & Bars"
(Monday, March 4, 1861 - Saturday, May 2, 1863).
By the end of 1861 the flag would have 11 stars,
and then 13 by early 1862.

There are several important points that should be noted about this particular flag.

For first point is that the flag is a lovely banner, and quite striking as a national flag and largely patterned after the original Betsy Ross Flag of the original 13 independent and united States of America during the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). The designed was largely made due to sentimental attachment to Old Glory that continued to exist even after the secession of the first seven Southern States.

The man credited with designing the Stars and Bars was Mr. Nicola Marschall, a Prussian artist who lived in Montgomery Alabama at the time, though another Southern man, Mr. Orren Randolph Smith of North Carolina would make the same claim, having submitted a similar pattern.

The second point that should be made is that while the flag itself is considered the first formal banner of the Confederacy, it was not formally voted on and adopted as the Confederate national banner by the Provisional Confederate Congress.

In the hurry to have the flag's design adopted and prepared to be hoist on the afternoon of Monday, March 4th, the Confederate Congress neglected to formally enact an official flag law. The congressional journal reflects the report of the Committee on Flag and Seal, but indicates nothing regarding an official vote. Nor do the statute books of the Confederate States contain a Flag Act of 1861.

Despite official use for over two years as the 1st Confederate National Flag, the "Stars and Bars" was never formally established as the Confederate Flag by the laws of the land.

No doubt this bit of historical trivia would come as a shock to modern-day anti-Confederate flag advocates who mockingly claim in largely misinformed propaganda that the 1st CSA National Flag is the actual Confederate flag rather than the traditional Confederate (Dixie Cross) battle flag.

The final point concerning the 1st Confederate National Flag is the use of the nickname "Stars and Bars" which is often wrongly given to the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia battle flag. This is a mistake often widely made by Southern-born Confederate heritage opponents and even by some Confederate heritage preservationists alike.

For the record, the Stars and Bars is not the St. Andrew's Cross-patterned Confederate Battle Flag ANV and it never was. 

11-Star version of the 1st Confederate National Flag "Stars & Bars"
(March 4, 1861 - May 2, 1863).

The Dixie Cross Banner (or Southern Cross)
Based on the Confederate Battle Flag Army of
Northern Virginia Pattern.
This rectangular version was used as the Naval Jack of the
Confederate Navy and a battle flag pattern for the
Confederate Army of Tennessee in the later half of the
War Between the States.

The Stars & Bars would later be retired by the Confederate Congress due to the flag's similarity to the flag of the United States, which lost much of its nostalgia following two years of bloody conflict. It would be replaced formally on Saturday, May 2, 1863 by the 2nd Confederate National Flag "The Stainless Banner" designed largely by the Committee on Flag & Seal. This design incorporated the Southern Cross pattern of the battle flag of General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.

Contrary to some modern-day anti-Confederate heritage propaganda, the Stainless Banner was not in fact designed by William T. Thompson, a Savannah newspaper editor who did in point of fact fact refer to the new flag in an editorial promoting the redesign as "the white man's flag".

The flag itself was designed largely by the Flag and Seal Committee appointed by the Confederate Congress, with the final details of the flag's design actually being attributed to Confederate Congressmen Peter W. Gray of Texas and Alexander R. Boteler of Virginia.

Ironically, what Thompson wrongly called the flag of "the white man" was first put into official use by the Confederate Congress to cover the coffin of Confederate Lieutenant General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, a man noted for founding and organizing Sunday school classes in Lexington, Virginia for the children of slaves and free black Southerners to learn to read the Bible -- a violation of what was then Virginia's State law barring the education of African-American slaves. 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, despite the fact that Jackson himself never officially served under it and died after being mortally wounded at the Battle of Chancellorsville on the very day the Confederate Congress approved its formal use as a national banner. 

The Second Confederate National Flag "The Stainless Banner"
Also referred to by Confederate soldiers as "Jackson's Flag"
(May 2, 1863 - March 4, 1865).

Like the Stars and Bars, this flag would also have its share of problems, not the least of which was the large white field that was often times mistaken wrongly for a flag of truce, or surrender at a distance by both Union and Confederate forces alike. To solve this problem, local Confederate officers would minimize the white field so that the Dixie Cross would show more predominately from a distance. 

Finally, on Saturday, March 4, 1865 -- four years after the first Stars and Bars banner flew over the Alabama State Capitol -- the Confederate Congress adopted a final Third Confederate National Flag, which incorporated a red bar on the fly end of the Stainless Banner and reduced the length of the flag itself. This final pattern was adopted about one month before the surrender of Lee's ANV at Appomattox, Virginia on April 9th and Johnston's Confederate Army of Tennessee on April 13th in Durham, North Carolina. Few examples of this flag exist today as barely a handful were produced before the collapse and dissolution of the Confederate government on Friday, May 5, 1865.

This flag is often referred to Confederate heritage supporters today as the "Blood Stained Banner", a modern name for this flag that throws a nod toward the red bar at the end of the flag which stands for the blood of those Southern men and boys who died in defense of homeland and Southern independence.  

The Third Confederate National Flag "The Bloodstained Banner"
(Saturday, March 4, 1865 - Friday, May 5, 1865).

Today Confederate heritage supporters across the American Southland remember these flags and the men who served under them in time of war with hundreds of small celebrations and rallies. 

On March 4th every year, the State of North Carolina honors Confederate Flag Day by flying the Stars and Bars flag above its capitol at half-staff beneath the NC State flag.

The Stars & Bars flies beneath the NC State flag on top
of the NC Capitol Building in Raleigh every March 4th.
(Photo courtesy of the NC Division SCV.)

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article25369417.html#storylink=cpy

Though Confederate Flag Day began with the Stars and Bars, this unofficial holiday honors all of the various flags -- both government and battle standards -- that were carried into battle by the Confederate citizen soldier. 

As a descendant of one of those soldiers -- and probably more than just one -- I honor this day by flying the battle flag my great-great grandfather served under while fighting with Generals Lee and Jackson. Of course, I display a Dixie Cross banner daily anyhow,  but still it is the thought that counts. I don't do this so much for the government of the Confederacy, nor the causes of Southern independence as I do for the men who fought and died to defend their home and personal independence underneath those flags; many of whom died carrying those same flags. For them and them alone I honor Confederate Flag Day. 

Deo Vindice.
Have a Happy Confederate Flag Day, Y'all!

The Star-Spangled Cross And The Pure Field Of White

The 2nd Confederate National Flag "Stainless Banner" over
Fort Sumter, October 20, 1863.
Oil painting done from a sketch made by Conrad Wise Chapman.

The Star-Spangled Cross and the
Pure Field of White

 

The Star-Spangled Cross and the pure field of white,
Is the banner we give to the breeze, 

'This an emblem of Freedom unfurled in the right,

O'er our home and our lands and our seas.

Chorus: 

We'll stand by the Cross
And the pure field of white,
While a shred's left to float on the air:

Our trust is in God, who can help us in fight,
And defend those who ask Him in prayer. 

For years we have cringed to the uplifted rod,

For years have demanded our right,

Our voice shouts defiance, our trust is in God,

And the strong arm that gives us our might.

Chorus

Our hills and our values with the death shriek may right,

And our forest may swarm with the foe,

But still to the breeze our proud banner we'll fling,

And to Vict'ry or Death we will go.

Chorus 

Composed by Subaltern
Created & Published by
Geo. Dunn & Company, Richmond, VA. 1864

The Second National Flag was approved by both houses of the Confederate Congress and became official on May 1, 1863. It was first used to cover the coffin of the beloved Lieutenant General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, who had been badly wounded at the Battle of Chancellorsville on May 2nd and later died of pneumonia on May 10th. His coffin was draped with the new Second National Flag and lay in state in the chamber of the House of Representatives on May 12th. As a result of this connection, as well as due to the fact that both this flag and Jackson's picture appeared on the Confederate $2 dollar bill of the February 2, 1864 issue, the Second National Banner was often called the "Jackson Flag". The pure white field also led to the Second National Flag being nicknamed the "Stainless Banner".