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FLASHSALE
“General Beauregard tried again and again to decide what [flag the troops in front of him at a distance] carried… Suddenly a puff of wind spread the colors to the breeze. It was the Confederate flag—the Stars and Bars! It was the Confederate flag… Beauregard turned to his staff right and left, saying, ‘See that? The day is ours!’ and ordered an immediate advance.”
—Confederate Private Carlton McCarthy Describing Confederate Commander General P.G.T. Beauregard’s Temporary Confusion Over the Identity of a Body of Advancing Troops Near the End of the First Battle of Bull Run
The Battle Flag vs. the Stars and Bars
When most people think of the Confederate flag today, they picture the familiar red banner bearing a blue St. Andrew’s Cross emblazoned with thirteen white stars. Yet this “Battle Flag” was never the national standard of the Confederacy. In fact, it did not appear in combat until late autumn 1861, several months after the Civil War’s first major clash at the First Battle of Bull Run.
Originally designed around the time of South Carolina’s secession as one of many proposals for a national banner, the St. Andrew’s Cross flag was dismissed by Confederate leaders for “resembl[ing] a pair of suspenders.” Instead, they chose the “Stars and Bars”—a red, white, and blue flag with a circle of stars. Clearly, as much as they despised Northerners, the Confederate leaders valued their American heritage. But at First Bull Run, that very similarity to the U.S. flag nearly cost the South a decisive victory.
[Photos: The U.S. Flag and the Confederate Stars and Bars]
Two Motley Armies Face Their First Test
Although hostilities began with the April 1861 Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter, no large-scale battle erupted until July. Both the Union and the Confederacy needed time to recruit, train, and equip armies that for the first time in North American history would number in the tens of thousands. By July 21, 1861, in northeastern Virginia, each side fielded roughly 33,000-man-strong armies composed largely of raw volunteers. Many of these men were brave but almost all were inexperienced and led by commanders schooled in Napoleonic tactics now outmatched by improvements in massed firepower.
On the morning of July 21, Union General Irvin McDowell launched a two-pronged assault across Bull Run Creek: one division under Daniel Tyler would fix the Confederate center at the Stone Bridge, while a larger force composed of David Hunter’s and Samuel Heintzelman’s divisions would turn the left flank of Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard’s army. Traffic jams delayed the flanking march until after 9 AM, however, giving Southern brigade commanders Nathan “Shanks” Evans, Barnard Bee, and Francis Bartow time to deploy some 3,000 men on Matthews Hill.
[Photo: Map of McDowell’s Plan of Attack, Credit to Hlj of Wikipedia]
Initial Union Progress and Confederate Disorder
Hunter’s piecemeal attacks were repulsed until Union brigade commander William T. Sherman of Tyler’s division exploited the new and completely exposed right flank of the Confederate position on Matthews Hill, driving the three Southern brigades from the promontory by 11:30 AM. At that moment, the battle seemed lost for the South—until two developments reversed its fortunes.
I. Stonewall Jackson’s Stand. While Sherman’s breakthrough scattered the three brigades forming the Confederate left flank, Colonel Thomas J. Jackson calmly massed 2,500 Virginians behind Henry House Hill. His fellow brigade commander Bee rallied his shaken troops by exclaiming, “Yonder stands Jackson like a stone wall. Let us determine to die here, and we will surely conquer.” Bee fell mortally wounded soon after, but Jackson’s troops held firm, and their brigade commander became forever immortalized as “Stonewall.”
[Photo: Stonewall Jackson at First Bull Run]
II. Exposed Union Artillery. McDowell ordered two artillery captains to drag eleven guns forward into an exposed position to better harass the Virginians on Henry House Hill. Jackson immediately ordered a charge against these batteries, and the members of the assaulting Southern regiment wore blue uniforms, which caused the Federal cannoneers to mistake them for friends and thus lose their big guns without firing more than a few shots at their enemies.
By 3 PM, fresh Confederate brigades under Philip St. George Cocke and Joseph Kershaw attached to Jackson’s left flank on Henry House Hill and completely swept the Union soldiers, whose retreat quickly turned into a rout, from the field. McDowell’s army scattered in panic, with many of the Union survivors intermingling with some of the Northern civilians who had come to picnic fleeing in such confusion that the press dubbed the race back to Washington, D.C. the “Great Skedaddle.”
[Photo: The “Great Skedaddle”]
Beauregard’s Moment of Terror—and Inspiration
As Beauregard watched the culmination of the counterattack initiated by Stonewall Jackson, he spotted a large new force approaching the attacking force’s left flank. When he attempted to identify this unit brand-new to the battlefield by its colors, he could not tell whether its flag was Northern or Southern. In Beauregard’s words:
“At the head waved a flag which I could not distinguish. I was unable to determine whether it was the United States flag or the Confederate flag.… My heart failed me.”
[Photo: General P.G.T. Beauregard]
Only after a sudden gust unfurled the banner did Beauregard recognize the Stars and Bars and breathe a sigh of relief: the force to Kershaw’s left which had so spooked the Confederate commander was Jubal Early’s Confederate brigade. This narrow escape taught Beauregard of a critical lesson: the national flag was too easily confused with the enemy’s.
From the Confederate Congress to the Battlefield: Adopting the Battle Flag
Shortly after the First Battle of Bull Run, Beauregard confided his concerns regarding the Stars and Bars’ troublesome resemblance to the Star-Spangled Banner to Representative William Porcher Miles, a member of the Confederate Flag Committee who had originally championed the St. Andrew’s Cross design. Denied the chance to make it the national standard months earlier, Miles now found an eager advocate for his favored design in Beauregard.
On September 4, 1861, Beauregard wrote Miles, regretting the committee’s “failure to change the flag” but proposing a compromise:
“To authorize commanding generals in the field to furnish their troops with a ‘field, or battle-flag’ which shall be according to your design.”
With Beauregard’s backing, other senior Confederate generals adopted the St. Andrew’s Cross design to adorn their battle flags. The Confederate government sponsored the creation of 120 silk flags, and Richmond seamstresses worked day and night—using up all the red and even pink silk in the city—to produce them quickly.
Finally, on November 28, 1861, Beauregard issued General Orders No. 75, distributing the new Battle Flags to the regiments composing his army in Virginia and leaving no room for his soldiers to doubt their new banner’s significance:
“A new banner is entrusted to-day as a battle flag… Soldiers: Your mothers, your wives, and your sisters have made it. Consecrated by their hands, it must lead you to substantial victory… Under its tarnished folds beat back the invader… find nationality… honor and renown for yourselves—or death.”
The Legacy—and Irony—of the Battle Flag
Beauregard’s prophecy was grimly borne out: by April 1865, Robert E. Lee’s surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox ended the Confederacy with most of Beauregard’s veterans of the First Battle of Bull Run having indeed found “death,” as opposed to the “nationality” of which they had so desperately dreamed. Yet the Battle Flag of the short-lived independent Southern country endured, flying at countless Civil War memorials and later becoming the most recognizable—and controversial—symbol associated with the South. However, the story of the Battle Flag’s origin, born of one commander’s moment of panic at Bull Run as opposed to any nefarious motivation, reminds us of how necessity—as opposed to ideology—often shapes even a nation’s most defining icons.
[Photo: Lee’s Confederates Surrender the Battle Flag at Appomattox]
Further Reading:
Alexander, Edward P. (1989). Fighting for the Confederacy: The Personal Recollections of General Edward Porter Alexander. (Ed. by Gary Gallagher). University of North Carolina Press.
Davis, William C. (1983). First Blood: Fort Sumter to Bull Run. Time-Life Books.
McPherson, James M. (1988). Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. Oxford University Press.
Robertson, James I. (1997). Stonewall Jackson: The Man, The Soldier, The Legend. MacMillan Publishing.
Ultimate Flags. (2025). “Manassas: Birth of the Battle Flag, Part I.”