The First Approved Confederate (CSA) Flag - 7 Stars

I did some research a while back about the number of stars in the 1st National Flag. As you note, the first had 7 stars for the 7 states that had seceded at the time it was adopted. Then Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee seceded (now 11 stars). The last version had 13 stars, arranged in a variety of ways (one way was a circle of 12 with one in the middle). Those extra two stars were for Missouri and Kentucky. There were also some outliers, with 15 & 17 stars.

The 15 stars are described on one webpage - http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/us-csa1.html - as the "11 states that seceded from the Union, 2 (Kentucky and Missouri) that had confederate and union governments, 1 (Maryland) that attempted to secede but whose legislature was disbanded by federal officials and was unable to join the confederacy, even though it furnished more troops to the cause then at least one member of that country and 1 slave state (Delaware) that remained loyal to the union." (written by William M. Grimes-Wyatt, 29 April 1996). That webpage also has information about the "one surviving example" with 17 stars.

For info - The 2nd National Flag, called the "Stainless Banner", has the Battle Flag as the canton on a simple white field. The 3rd National Flag - the "Bloodstained Banner" (although I only found one site calling it this) - added a vertical bar of red to the 2nd National Flag.

Cheers, Liz

• http://www.loeser.us/flags/civil.html
• http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/us-csa1.html
• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_the_Confederate_States_of_America
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederate_States_of_America#Span_of_control

Thank you Liz. I drew and uploaded The Stainless Banner. The Bloodstained Banner will be next. You probably also discovered that Texas used the seven-star version of the Stainless as their state flag throughout the war.

Thanks! Actually, I didn't (my research is mainly Virginia to Mississippi - I had an aunt by marriage from Texas, but I've never delved into Texas's history).

Cheers, Liz