“STARS AND BARS” Images of 12 Star versions of the first Confederate national flag.

 The garrison flag of the Confederate forces
at Vicksburg, Mississippi, 1863.
By Devereaux D. Cannon, Jr. 25 January 2000


12 star Garrison Flag
by Wayne J. Lovett
from a sketch by Howard M. Madaus


“The Brown Mountain Boys”
2nd Battalion North Carolina Infantry
Photo courtsy of the North Carolina Museum of History,
Raleigh, North Carolina
© North Carolina Museum of History

This unit was raised in the west central area of Stokes County, North Carolina, and was mustered in on May 1, 1861. Eventually the company became part of the 2nd Battalion North Carolina Infantry. Their flag of wool bunting, based on the first national “Stars and Bars,” was likely made by community women and presented to the company soon after its formation.

Tom Belton

 

Flag of Col. Gould’s
6th Texas Cavalry Battalion
By Wayne J. Lovett, 31 January 2000

Classifying this as a 12 star flag involves counting the 11 white stars and the large red star in the canton. If only the white stars in the canton are counted, it is an 11 star flag; if the star in the shield on the white bar is also counted, it is a 13 star flag.