Retired
17526a-C
Consignment
This is a Consignment sale item we are offering. It comes in bubble wrap and is in very good condition.
W. Britain's #17526 Confederate Colour Bearer with Flag
In September 1861, General Pierre G. T. Beauregard, the victor of First Bull Run, proposed that William Porcher Miles’ rejected design for the Confederate national flag be adopted as the battle flag for the Rebel Army of the Potomac. Miles had proposed a rectangular banner featuring a red field intersected by a blue cross of St. Andrew bedecked by white stars. To save cloth, the battle flag version was converted to a square shape and made more durable with borders of various colors. The first few of these "Southern Cross" flags proved so popular that the Confederate quartermaster ordered 120 more for the Army of Northern Virginia, purchasing dress silk on the open market. When shops in Richmond ran out of red silk, various shades of pink were substituted. Although Rebel forces in the Western Theater used other battle flags, the Southern Cross became the Confederacy’s most famous symbol, and its design was incorporated into the second national flag.