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Andrew Bradshaw III

UWRT 1103
Professor Raymond
27 July 2015
Writing Prompt #8: The History of the Rebel Flag

Figure 1: The Bonnie Blue Flag

Source: Duke Libraries <http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/hasm_conf0007/>
One of the first unofficial flags of the Confederacy was The Bonnie Blue Flag and it was in
commission during the year 1861. It was mainly used during the bombing of Fort Sumter in
South Carolina; this event is often titled the beginning of the civil war. The flag later became
more (in) famous for its mention in the song The Bonnie Blue Flag, which became the unofficial
battle song for the Confederacy.

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Figure 2: A Live Replica of the Confederate Flag (Original Picture)
Source: Picture by Andrew Bradshaw III
Over the weekend, I took it upon myself to get a confederate flag for the purposes of this project.
During my purchase of the flag, I ran into the store owner of the establishment and we had an
extensive conversation about the nature of the flag and the customers who come in and buy the
flag. He told me,
Some people come into this store and buy the flag and theyre racist, its obvious.
Others come into the store and want to honor their southern heritage. Ive seen both but just
understand that its a sensitive symbol and can bring a lot of emotion out of people,
He asked to remain anonymous after our conversation.
Furthermore, the live replica of the Confederate flag shows the symbolism of the
time period. The thirteen stars represent the thirteen seceded states from the Union and the
design of the flag was brought about by the Stars and Bars idea from Nicola Marschall.

Figure 3: The Stars and Bars Flag

Source: NCPedia <http://ncpedia.org/stars-and-bars>
The ORIGINAL Confederate flag idea pitched by Prussian artist Nicola Marschall. He used
inspiration from the Austrian Empires flag to create the Stars and Bars flag. Originally, it was
deemed the official flag of the confederacy until the First Battle of Bull Run, where soldiers
complained the flag was too similar to the American flag. There were several revisions to the
flag until the Battle flag that we know today (Figure 2) was adopted.

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Works Cited
Belton, Tom. Stars and Bars. Digital image. NCPedia. N.p., 2006. Web. 27 July 2015.
The Bonnie Blue Flag. Digital image. Duke University Libraries. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 July 2015.