As I've looked at these flags, I've often wondered about the hands that gripped the shaft and carried them into battle. It was an extreme honor to carry the colors onto the battlefield, especially since the Confederate Battle Flag wasn't unfurled for just any occasion. The battle flags were never displayed except on the battlefield. Their purpose was to lead the troops into the fight and rally them during and after the fight. At no other time was the battle flag used. I think that is part of the mystique that still surrounds the battle flags of the Confederate Army. If you look long enough at these flags, and let your imagination run free a little, you can almost hear the drums, smell the smoke, hear the Rebel Yell rising up from the gray lines. What an exciting an terrifying spectacle it must have been, to know what was coming, and then to see the flags start moving and to hear the Yell increase to a fever pitch, knowing that the finest infantry anywhere in world at that time was coming in under those snapping flags. How many died simply because they had been accorded the honor of bearing the flag, making them an instant target? More amazing still, how many reached for the flag as it dipped, bringing it back up to its rightful place, unmindful of the increased danger? The flags symbolized the very essence of the Confederate soldier: bravery, faith, and just plain stubborness. If you carried the colors, you were doing something special. You represented your entire unit.
To understand the view that many Confederate soldiers had of their battle flags, one need only look at the scene immediately before the surrender at Appomattox. Many units, rather than surrender their precious battle flags to be carted off as trophies of war, cut them into small pieces, with each man taking a piece as a memento and as a final, small sign of defiance. Many of those pieces survive to this day, still unsurrendered.
The fate of the captured and surrendered battle flags after the war was a sad one. They were carried off to the North where they were displayed as spoils of war for a time, and then they were catalogued and placed into storage. For years, Southerners tried to secure the return of the flags to the states from which they came. Only after many long, drawn-out negotiations were some flags returned home. Many have never returned, ending up in Northern museums or private collections, their heritage often misrepresented by those who viewed them as trophies of "the Rebellion."
"The True Definition of a Redneck"
"History of the Confederate Flag"
