3rd National CSA Flag

3X5 Polyester

The third national flag was adopted March 4, 1865, just before the fall of the Confederacy. The red vertical stripe was proposed by Major Arthur L. Rogers, who argued that the pure white field of the second national flag could be mistaken as a flag of truce. Rogers lobbied successfully to have his design introduced in the Confederate Senate. He defended his design as having “as little as possible of the Yankee blue”, and described it as symbolizing the primary origins of the people of the South, with the cross of Britain and the red bar from the flag of France.[10]

The Flag Act of 1865 describes the flag in the following language: “The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the flag of the Confederate States shall be as follows: The width two-thirds of its length, with the union (now used as the battle flag) to be in width three-fifths of the width of the flag, and so proportioned as to leave the length of the field on the side of the union twice the width of the field below it; to have the ground red and a broad blue saltire thereon, bordered with white and emblazoned with mullets or five pointed stars, corresponding in number to that of the Confederate States; the field to be white, except the outer half from the union to be a red bar extending the width of the flag