Month: June 2020

Let us consider the 11 states that would have stars in the Confederate flag. The first official Confederate flag was the “Stars and Bars” and not the early “Beauregard flag,” its successor, the “Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia,” or the second (“Stainless Banner”) or third (“Bloodstained Banner”) official Confederate Flag. Nevertheless, for this calculus, we will consider the listed states as having been under the “Confederate Flag” for the entire period from the official formation of the Confederacy to the surrender of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Courthouse. This period, from 08 FEB 1861 to 19 APR 1865, lasted 1,521 days. For comparison, the duration from original statehood to formation of the Confederacy is considered along with the time from Lee’s surrender to now. The percentage of that total time during which these states claimed to be a part of a separate nation is shown on the right.

An insignificant fraction of total statehood of each was spent under one iteration or another of the various Confederate flags. As such, it would seem there must be some other reason for certain people to venerate this particular part of their collective history.

I wonder what that could be.

Today I had a discussion with a colleague on the “Confederate Flag” (the most common representation is not any of the three official iterations of the Confederate Flag). I hope I bored her to tears, but I find the topic interesting. I may have to expound upon this topic.