yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Not The Confederate Flag?


2m read
·Nov 7, 2024

This is not the confederate national flag: When the United States split in twain during the Civil War, this was the first flag her rebel half used: The Bonnie Blue, which she copied from the Republic of West Florida. No, really. This country existed: a border disagreement between Spain and the US over the Louisiana Purchase gave some local rebels an opportunity to take over a fort in 1810, declare independence, as required with a flag, and run a government -- for 78 days until the United States put an end to that.

Anyway, fast forward to the Civil War, and when Mississippi seceded from the Union, she adopted the flag of the tiny country that had been within her borders. And it became the unofficial flag of the rebellion, but not for long. Blue wouldn't do. That's a Yankee color. The new confederate government asked for design submissions and got several, including one from a German/Prussian artist in Alabama who possibly took design cues from the Austrian Empire. And Betsy Ross.

(Side note: while we are talking about misnamed flags, Betsy Ross probably didn't design this flag -- there's no evidence to support that she did, only stories from long after she died -- Lady Godiva style. But we're getting off track here.) The confederate government selected this as her official flag and named it the "Stars and Bars" -- so calling this the stars and bars is wrong on two counts: that's not its name, this is a cross. These are bars.

New flag adopted, off to war, but on the battlefield, the flag's similarity with the Union's was confusing, what with all the terror and smoke. Nonetheless, the Confederacy stuck with her flag, but her Army wanted to avoid friendly fire and so took one of the rejected designs and squarified it into a battle flag. The navy too liked this design and eventually switched, though using a brighter, presumably non-Yankee blue.

The popularity of the official flag decreased in the Confederacy as time went on (even as they kept increasing the stars), while the popularity of the battle flag grew. So in 1863, the Confederate Government tried again and went with white, sticking the battle flag in the corner. This was better in the sense that the flag looked less like the Yankees', but worse in that the international symbol of surrender was now in the background. The army stuck with theirs.

Two years later, the confederate government again changed the flag, adding a red bar and a new, tough name. Also, the design slightly rectangularlified the battle flag. This could no longer be mistaken for surrender and was the last flag, as 36 days later the Confederacy surrendered. So this design was never technically the flag of the confederate government -- but... close enough.

More Articles

View All
Solving equations by graphing: word problems | Algebra 2 | Khan Academy
We’re told to study the growth of bacteria. A scientist measures the area in square millimeters occupied by a sample population. The growth of the population can be modeled by ( f(t) = 24 \times e^{0.4t} ) where ( t ) is the number of hours since the expe…
Hiring Engineers with Ammon Bartram
Hey guys, today we have Almond Bartram, co-founder of Socialcam and Triplebyte, and he is here to talk to us about hiring. So, could you just give us a quick intro about what you’ve worked on? Cool, so I joined Justin.tv fresh out of school in 2009. It w…
Adding the opposite with number lines | 7th grade | Khan Academy
So, this number line diagram here, it looks like I’m adding or subtracting two numbers. I’m starting with what looks like a positive nine. I’m starting at 0 and going nine units to the right, so that’s a positive nine. To that, it looks like I might be a…
Why AI Hasn’t Blown Our Minds…Yet
Hypothetically, if AI is a bust in a bunch of different ways but it works extremely well fixing customer service, that’s still massive. It’s going to change our world; massive impact. Hello, this is Dalton plus Michael and today we’re going to talk about…
Safari Live - Day 372 | National Geographic
Program features live coverage of an African safari and may include animal kills and carcasses. Viewer discretion is advised. Well, good afternoon everybody and welcome to a spectacular start to the afternoon safari with one of our leopards we don’t see …
If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Happy?
A common complaint where I’m from, where I’m surrounded by lots of smart overachievers, is that happiness is for stupid people or happiness is for lazy people. A lot of times, it’s not. Runners will say, “I don’t want to be happy because I want to be succ…