Our Southern Cross, by Mike Scruggs, SCV

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The Confederate Battle Flag - "Our Southern Cross". Sunday, February 14, 2010 at 1:40am


There can be no doubt that the Confederate Battle Flag or our Southern Cross was intended to be a banner signifying the Christian heritage of the Southern people. It is incumbent on those who value truth, fairness, good will, reasonable tolerance, and charity in society to educate themselves on the true history and meaning of this famed banner.



SYMBOLISM AND FLAG DESIGN



The most prominent design feature of the Battle Flag is its diagonal cross or saltier. For many centuries, this has been a preeminent Christian symbol. In the Greek alphabet, the name of Christ begins with the letter "X" or "Chi." The symbol was reinforced when the Apostle St. Andrew was martyred on a diagonal cross in 60 A.D.



St. Andrew is recognized as the Patron Saint of Scotland. Since early in the 12th century, the Scottish National Flag, or St. Andrew's Cross, has been a white diagonal (saltier) on a field of blue symbolizing the Scottish as a Christian people. Many European nations have chosen the cross in various designs to identify themselves as Christian nations. The English flag is a red, perpendicular cross, or St. Georges Cross, on a field of white. The British National Flag, or union flag, contains the English St. Georges Cross, with the diagonal St. Andrews Cross of Scotland, and with the red diagonal St. Patricks Cross representing Northern Ireland. Finland, Greece, and Switzerland also use a cross in their flags.



The Confederate Battle Flag is a descendant of the Scottish St. Andrews Cross.



- The red field signifies courage.



- The blue of the saltier signifies truth and, in connection with St. Andrew, also means strength.



- The white stars and bordering of the cross signifies the purity of the Southern cause.



The principal designer and sponsor, Congressman William Porcher Miles stated in a letter written in the summer of 1861, "The flag should be a token of humble acknowledgment of God and be a public testimony to the world that our trust is in the Lord our God."



This meaning was widely understood by Confederate soldiers and the Southern people. That is why the flag is frequently referred to as "our Southern cross."







MISCONSTRUED AS A FLAG OF CONFLICT



The Confederate Battle Flag is held in disfavor by many who are unfamiliar with its origin and true symbolism.



There are those who say the display of the Confederate Battle Flag is insensitive and that it is an offensive symbol of slavery. However, their offense is based on ignorance of its true origin and history. Their offense and sensitivity are based on decades of unquestioned propaganda attempting to justify an unjust war started by Abraham Lincoln, fabled beloved president, and his deplorable tyranny and misconduct. Study the words of Abraham Lincoln and the resolutions of the United States Congress in 1861 (especially, the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution).



The Union Army did not invade the South to free slaves, but to prevent its political and economic independence. Less than 5% of the Southern population owned slaves. Not many favored slavery's continued existence for long in the future, but they wanted the right to deal with the issue in their own way, in their own time, state by state. It was only later in the war that Lincoln and Union propagandists began to use the slavery issue in an attempt to give tyranny a pious justification.



Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation came after more that 19 months of war and did not actually free any slaves in the Confederacy, the Union, and Union-held areas of the Confederacy. It was done as a war measure hoping to cause disorder throughout the South. The London Times termed Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, "the wretched makeshift of a pettifogging lawyer." Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation also left the over 200,000 slaves in the North in bondage.



SYMBOLISM TO SOUTHERNERS



To Southern soldiers and their families, the Battle Flag symbolized their Christian heritage and resistance to tyranny. They fought for the right of the Southern States and their people to determine their own destinies, just as their Revolutionary fathers had fought the British. They battled against the evil of unjust taxation, abuses of power by Northern political factions, and Northern political dominance. After years of hardship and blood spent on the battlefields, the Southern Cross came to symbolize the courage and blood sacrifice of the Southern people. When the surrender at Appomattox came in April of 1865, they gave up their regimental banners with tears and weeping.



Most of us today have been taught to treat the Battle Flag as an object of moral horror and political infamy. A deadly combination of ignorance and arrogant self-righteousness is constantly engaged in shouting down its true history and meaning.



The right to define the meaning of the Confederate Battle Flag, or any flag, belongs to those who by their history and shed blood own its heritage.



Radical and lawless groups often display the United States Flag, but this does not change its true meaning to fair-minded people. In addition, fair-minded people incorrectly associate the Confederate Battle Flag with evil because the very same radical groups expropriate and display it. Redefining and slandering someone else's heritage and symbols is incredibly arrogant and stirs up needless strife. The Confederate Battle Flag should be the honored heritage of every Southerner and every American. No cowardice or indifference should allow it to be trampled under the heel of busybodies and the political correctness police.



ORIGIN OF THE CONFEDERATE BATTLE FLAG



In 1861, due to his knowledge of heraldry, the United States Congressman from South Carolina, William Porcher Miles, was appointed Chairman of the congressional committee to select a national flag for the newly formed Confederate States of America. On the deadline date of March 4, 1861, the work of the committee was presented to the Confederate Congress. Out of numerous suggestions, the committee had narrowed the field down to four choices. One of these four choices was William Porcher Miles' own design, which was essentially the South Carolina Sovereignty Flag, except that the cross was changed from a St. Georges Cross to a diagonal St. Andrews Cross without the Palmetto canton. Charles Moise, a self-described "Southerner of the Jewish persuasion," had critiqued Miles' original design and asked that "the symbol of a particular religion not be made the symbol of a nation."



Taking this into account, Miles changed his flag, removing the palmetto and crescent, and substituting the heraldic saltire ("X") for the upright cross. The diagonal cross was preferable, Miles wrote, because "it avoided the religious objection about the cross (from the Jewish and many Protestant sects), because it did not stand out so conspicuously as if the cross had been placed upright thus." He also argued that the diagonal cross was "more Heraldic than Ecclesiastical, it being the 'saltier' of Heraldry, and significant of strength and progress." There were seven stars on the proposed flag because, as of March 4, 1861, only seven states had properly seceded and joined the Confederacy.



The national flag finally chosen was the "Stars and Bars," which had a circle of seven white stars on an upper left, blue canton and three horizontal bars -- red, white, and red. One of the main reasons the "Stars and Bars" flag was chosen over Miles' St. Andrews Cross was that the Stars and Bars resembled the United States flag.



At that time, the Confederate Congress wanted to keep its identification with the 1787 U.S. Constitution. They believed they had been faithful to the Constitution, but the Northern states, especially the Northern industrial states, had continually tried to undermine the Constitution for Northern profit at Southern expense. The Southern belief was in a government of law, which was strict constitutionalism versus the North's majoritarian rule and manipulation of the Constitution. In addition, the North had imposed enormous tariffs on manufactured goods that protected Northern industry at considerable expense to Southern agriculture, trade, and the Southern economy.



The Confederate Congress passed over William Porcher Miles' St. Andrews Cross for the Stars and Bars, but Miles did not give up promoting his choice for some honorable Southern use. In the early battles of the Civil War, it was noted that there was often confusion on the battlefield because of the similarity of the Stars and Bars flag to the United States flag.



CREATION OF A BATTLE FLAG



After the first Battle of Manassas at Bull Run Creek, both General P.G.T. Beauregard and his commander, General Joseph E. Johnston, were convinced that there was a need to change the flag. Battlefield commanders needed to be able to identify their troops and positions on the field despite the smoke and dust without confusion.



As it happened, Congressman William Porcher Miles had now been serving on Beauregard's staff and was also the Chairman of the House Military Affairs Committee. As the Confederate Congress did not favor changing the national flag, Miles suggested that the Army of the Potomac (later renamed the Army of Northern Virginia) should have a special battle flag. Hundreds of suggestions were received from Confederate officers and officials and most suggestions included crosses of some sort.



Miles prevailed in his suggestion that his original St. Andrews Cross for the national flag be used as the needed battle flag for the regiments of the Army of Northern Virginia (ANV). It was modified only by putting a white border around the edges. Now that there were more states in the Confederacy, the stars were more symmetrical and the flag was very attractive.



Johnston determined that the Army of Northern Virginia battle flag would be square at the suggestion of the Quartermaster, General William Cabell, in order to save cloth and money.



The Southern Cross was officially accepted as a battle flag on October 1, 1861. However, it was not used as the battle flag by every regiment in the ANV. Some already had battle flags that they wished to keep. The first battle flags had only 12 stars, but the 13th was added in early 1862, making its symmetry complete.



The ANV battle flag eventually spread to the Army of Tennessee and other Confederate Armies. The Army of Tennessee typically used a rectangular version without the white edging. This also became the Confederate Naval Jack and is the most common Confederate Battle Flag seen today.







For more on the Confederate Battle Flag, see two researched articles written by Mike Scruggs, the "Confederate Battle Flag" and "Beneath the Southern Cross."



Mike Scruggs is a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Fighting Joe Wheeler Camp 1732, in Vestavia Hills, Alabama, and he is also the author of "Un-Civil War: Truths Your Teacher Never Told You."