Historic Flags of the Texas State Library and Archives
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Cotton, 40.5 X 41 inches
Conserved
1980 Conservator's report - Panhandle Plains Historical Museum
1999 Conservator's report - Textile Preservation Associates
1905 letter from Secretary of War William Howard Taft on the return of war flags to Texas
More Online Exhibits:
Under the Rebel Flag: Life in Texas During the Civil War
TSLAC 306-4036
First Texas Infantry Regiment
The 1st Texas Regiment carried this factory-made battle flag in addition to their unique Lone Star flag (TSLAC 306-4037). The St. Andrew’s cross design was one of many battle flag designs. Years after the war, it was adopted as a Confederate symbol, giving it symbolic meaning to 21st-century Americans that it did not have at the time. The stars represent the number of states in the Confederacy. The X-shaped St. Andrew’s Cross, rather than the more traditional upright St. George’s Cross, was chosen at the request of Jewish citizens, who asked that a symbol of a particular religion not be made the emblem of the Confederacy.
This flag is a rare version called the “First Bunting Issue” by flag scholars; that is, flags produced from a stock of wool bunting captured from the Federal navy and issued to only two or three brigades in the Army of Northern Virginia in the spring and summer of 1862. This flag was carried into battle at Antietam on September 17, 1862, and was captured along with the Lone Star flag. Both flags were returned to Texas in 1905.
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