Information from Mississippi History Now, compiled and submitted by Dru Pfeiffer.
In early July 1861, General P.G.T. Beauregard directed his quartermaster to issue to each of his
troops a red flannel badge to be worn on the left shoulder. Those red badges would distinguish
Confederate soldiers from Federal soldiers whose uniforms were similar in style, color, and markings.
Even with these distinctive red badges, the difficulty of identifying the opposing army especially at
great distances created much anxiety and near catastrophe for the Confederates on July 21 at
Manassas Junction, near Bull Run Creek, the first major battle of the Civil War.
About 4 o'clock that afternoon, Beauregard looked across the Warrenton turnpike, which ran through
the valley between the Confederates and the Federals, who occupied the higher elevation. He saw a
column of troops moving toward his left and the Federals right. He was anxious to learn if they were
his troops or the enemy's.
The swirling clouds of dust obscured them; their uniforms were similar; and their national colors were
indistinguishable on that hot, sultry day with little or no wind to waft them.
Beauregard asked his officers to study the movement through their field glasses to see if they could
identify the approaching army. They were finally identified as friendly forces, but during those
agonizing moments of delay and indecision, some Confederate troops fired on their comrades
approaching from the left.5
After it was learned that both Federal and Confederate troops wore badges of red flannel, officials of
both armies accused their opponents of using the markings and colors of the other side as a military
stratagem.
Following the First Battle of Manassas, General Joseph E. Johnston, General G. W. Smith, General
Beauregard, and other Confederate officers were determined that the fiasco at Manassas would not
happen again.
Johnston, the ranking Confederate officer, ordered all military units to use the flags of their states.
But only Virginia had supplied her troops with their state flag. The Confederate officers were then
determined to design and adopt a battle flag that would be clearly recognizable.6
Beauregard Battle Flag
Beauregard, who had already anticipated the need for a new battle flag, wrote to William P. Miles,
chairman of the House Military Affairs Committee of the Confederate Congress, suggesting the
adoption of a new national flag. Failing in that effort, Beauregard asked his Louisiana officers to suggest
some possible new designs for a battle flag.
When it became known that a new battle flag would soon be adopted, the high command was
inundated with designs and drafts. Of the many different designs and configurations, the basic pattern
that appeared most often was a cross, of various shapes, emblazoned with stars. The colors of red,
white, and blue were also prominent.7
After lengthy consideration was given to various designs, Johnston and Beauregard met with Quartermaster
General William L. Cabell at the Fairfax Courthouse in Virginia in September 1861 to finalize the design of
the new battle flag. Johnston proposed a flag in the shape of an ellipse with a red field and a blue saltier
(a diagonal cross, often called a St. Andrew's cross) containing a white star for each Confederate state.
Beauregard had suggested in his letter to Congressman Miles a square or rectangular design consisting
of a blue field with a red cross containing gold stars. It appears from that correspondence that Beauregard
favored either a Latin cross (a crucifix) or a Greek cross (St. George's), rather than the diagonal cross
of St. Andrew.
Congressman Miles found Beauregard's color combination to be contrary to the laws of heraldry and
suggested a blue saltier, with white stars, on a field of red. Deferring to Miles' knowledge of heraldry,
Beauregard accepted his modifications and included them in his final proposal to Johnston and Cabell.8
As the three Confederate officers were considering the design of the battle flag, Cabell indicated that
Beauregard's design would be easier and quicker to produce than Johnston's and there would be no waste
of cloth in a square or rectangular flag. Johnston, though he outranked Beauregard, accepted Beauregard's
design and directed that the new battle flag be a perfect square. (figure 3)
The size of the flag was 4 x 4' for infantry, 3 x 3' for artillery, and 2 1/2 x 2 1/2' for cavalry.
General Bradley T. Johnson, whose Maryland regiment fought with the Confederacy at Manassas, had seen
a watercolor drawing of the original design and described the flag several years later as a red square, on
which was displayed a blue St. Andrew's cross, bordered with white, and charged with thirteen white,
five-pointed stars. He referred to this design as Beauregard's battle flag.9
Both Johnston and Beauregard were anxious to have new flags prepared before the next military
engagement. They cautioned Cabell to keep the design and shape of the new emblem a secret to prevent
Federal forces from counterfeiting the flag and causing more confusion on the field of battle.
Johnston's hope for secrecy was dashed when he arranged for about seventy-five women in Richmond to
begin making the new flags. The new design could be seen all over the Confederate capital the day after
its adoption.
Beauregard and some other officers urged the Confederate Congress to adopt the new design as the national
flag of the Confederacy, but the Congress declined to do so.
Cabell issued orders to quartermasters throughout the Army of the Potomac to provide the new battle
flag to all their fighting units.
On October 1, 1861, the Confederate War Department authorized the use of the new battle flag by the
Army of the Potomac, which was later renamed the Army of Northern Virginia by General Robert E. Lee.10
The war department did not direct other Confederate armies to adopt the new design although many
of the Confederate armies east of the Mississippi River did eventually use the Beauregard flag.
When Beauregard assumed command of the Confederate forces in western Tennessee in early 1862,
he found that General Leonidas K. Polk had already adopted a flag "similar to the one I had designed
for the Army of the Potomac." Beauregard replaced Polk’s flag with his battle flag.
In September 1862, when Beauregard was reassigned to Charleston, he substituted the same banner
for the state flags, then principally used in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.11
Although the Beauregard battle flag was perhaps the emblem most widely used by southern troops,
it was never made the official battle flag of the Confederate Army and there were many other battle
flags of varying styles, shapes, and colors used by Rebel forces during the Civil War.
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