Vexillology and the Confederate Flag

Dr. Thomas G. Clemens shows us that we may not know as much about the Confederate flag as we think we do.

[jude]

Nice work. Refreshing not to hear it talked about in terms of politics.

[eaglecam]

Very good. Information erases inflammation.

[jayb]

Very informative...everyone should watch this video!

[accelerate]

The confederate national flag is just Austria’s flag with a blue square and some stars

[kqrv]

Even the square version of battle flag shown in the video (the Southern Cross) was not used universally by the confederate army. It was primarily used in the eastern theater (e.g the ANV) as opposed to in confederate armies west of the Appalachians, who tended to use either their own home-grown design of regimental flags or some version of the Polk, Hardee, McCown battle flag, especially prior to late 1863.

[TheOBruadair]

This cat doesn't know what he is talking about when he indicates ALL Confederate battle flags were square. ONLY the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia was square. The ANV was one CS army of several. Almost all flags issued to the Army of Tennessee and the Department of Alabama, Mississippi and East Alabama were RECTANGULAR. This is "history professor" and he can't even get that right?

[miniwars]

So the rectangular (vs square) confederate flag is like the vexillology equivalent of putting a hard "r" on the n word.

[TonyWright]

People never want to give the full history they only want to give a partial history

[McMaddish]

Nice Video, very informative. For your next video you could try Jay-Walking on the street at ask people if they can recognize the confederate flag. Try asking history teachers in high school or history freshmen! I wouldn't use 'perverted', 'modified' would have been more nice. Also a video about Naval Confederate flag would be nice!

[koan__]

That fancy word for the study of flags though

[lapizazulli]

A lost cause by the rebels but left a BADASS flag!!! The Battle Flag of Northern Virginia.

[Jivvi]

Anything that is square is, by definition, also rectangular. If you meant to specify something that is longer in one dimension than the other, the word you're looking for is oblong.

[caseyc]

They just couldn't make a good flag huh. What a shame.

[jamesturner]

This gentleman is terribly incorrect, and doesn't know as much about the Confederate flag as he thinks he does. The rectangular version of the Southern Cross was very common in the Confederate army, specifically in the Army of Tennessee. Dr. Clemens, we have dozens of examples of the flags that you say never existed in our Tennessee State Museum. They were not naval jacks, and as a flag expert I'm very disappointed to see someone like you pose as one. You're also incorrect that the Confederate flag was created in a rectangular size as a symbol of hate. Plainly, companies started creating Confederate flags in larger numbers around the time of the war's centennial, and simply needed to use the same production machinery they had for the US and other flags. So the rectangular flag of the Confederacy was created because it worked better on the same machines that already made the rectangular Stars and Stripes, Union Jack, French Tricolor, and so forth. 

But let me make it very plain: There were hundreds of actual Confederate flags creates in a rectangular Southern Cross pattern and carried at places like Atlanta, Franklin, and Nashville. Google 20th Tennessee Infantry flag and see a great example. 

Finally, come up with a better example to equate this flag with, rather than a swastika. There's no need in that. Thank you.