Confederate First National Flag – CSA 13 Stars and Bars
Among the hundreds of designs submitted to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America in early 1861, this one was chosen as the nation’s official flag. Nicknamed “Stars and Bars,” it bore the initial seven stars of those states that had already seceded from the Union – a number that would increase to 13 after Missouri and Kentucky were admitted into the Confederacy on November 28 and December 10, respectively, in 1861.Resource: https://ultimateflags.com/products/confederate-first-national-flag-csa-13-stars-and-bars-flag-3-x-5-ft-standard/
At the beginning of the Civil War, this pattern had such a close resemblance to the American flag that it often caused confusion on the battlefield, and one Southern commander even ordered a retreat because he mistook arriving Confederate reinforcements for Union troops. This pattern is also referred to as the Confederate battle flag because of its role in the decisive First Battle of Bull Run. Its use became a symbol of Confederate military victory and independence and was widely adopted in South Carolina, Virginia, and North Carolina.
Remembering History: Confederate First National Flag – CSA 13 Stars and Bars
As time passed, ordinary white Southerners began to use the flag for a variety of purposes – not only to memorialize the Civil War but to promote segregation and resistance to the Union. It was so closely associated with the Confederacy and its heroes that, despite a period during Reconstruction when the Federal government strongly, but unofficially, discouraged its use, ordinary white southerners continued to display and employ it well into the era of civil rights in the 1940s. It is the only American flag that is still widely used by the Ku Klux Klan to this day (although there is a growing movement to change that).