The “Confederate” Flag and the Co-Opting of History
As I return from displaying my flag for Flag Day (you did know it was Flag Day, didn’t you?), I pause to reflect on the latest bruhaha concerning what is commonly called the Confederate flag. Throughout history, our cultures have placed a lot of importance on flags. After all, the progenitor of my family clan, Clan Farquharson, was Finla Mor, who was killed at the Battle of Pinkie Cluegh bearing the royal banner. It’s essential to consider the purpose of flags as the identification of a group of people uniting together to achieve a goal. Whether it was St George’s Cross flown by Crusaders or a disparate group of Marines raising the Stars and Stripes atop Mount Suribachi at the Battle of Iwo Jima, people have come together, fought, and died carrying flags.
The flag many call the “Confederate flag” is actually not the Confederate flag at all, that would be known as the “Stars and Bars”. The flag at the source of this current controversy would specifically be the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia (ANV), which wasn’t adopted until November 28, 1861. Its sole use at the time of its inception was to serve as a battle flag, and the reason for its creation was to distinguish it from the Stars and Stripes as the Stars and Bars looked very similar and caused confusion on the field of battle. Only after the war did this flag, which only existed for three and a half years, come to identify the Confederacy and, more broadly, the South.
This is an important thing to consider as, since that time, clearly the symbolism of the ANV battle flag has been co-opted by everyone from state governments to the Ku Klux Klan. Flags aren’t the only symbols that are created for one purpose and then co-opted by another. The swastika, for instance, was a religious symbol for centuries before the Nazis co-opted it. Like the swastika after it, it’s time the ANV battle flag be retired to history as the only place it truly belongs.
Over the past few days, I’ve noticed a number of people posting their indignation over NASCAR’s decision to ban the ANV battle flag and other things. They proudly display the ANV battle flag on their pages in protest. The claim made is almost overwhelmingly one about heritage: the flag represents the South; it has nothing to do with racism or white nationalism (pretty interesting as I see “Yankees” almost exclusively posting it in my social feeds, but I digress). I’d ask those who would make such claims to consider what a symbol as this represents to others. In fact, one should consider what the symbol meant in the first place, not what it has been co-opted to mean.
It’s no secret the Lost Cause of the Confederacy was a way of life for many Southerners in the post-war South. It’s driven by beliefs the South’s cause was a just one, and the war was one of states’ rights in a battle against “Northern aggression” and was not about slavery. The ANV battle flag became a sacred part of this movement and a symbol of the Lost Cause. When one looks back on the Lost Cause theory, what you really see is an elaborate weaving of justification for the massive loss of many poor people to keep wealthy people in the style to which they were accustomed.
The Southern aristocracy, flush with cash from the antebellum period earned on the backs and lives of slaves, wanted to preserve its way of life (and its money) and needed a way to convince the poor, who would make up the vast majority of the army, to go along. They came up with these pleas of states’ rights to get them to lay down their lives in droves, and it worked.
Nobody should be fooled into believing there were any reasons for the Civil War other than slavery. Every single Confederate state cited it in their secession statements, every state constitution and the Confederate Constitution included the protection and expansion of slavery. I often think of the (fictional) words of General James Longstreet in the film Gettysburg when he says, “We should have freed the slaves and then fired on Fort Sumter.” This line reflects why many were fooled into believing in the South’s cause, the Lost Cause, and many an honorable man bought into it as he couldn’t bring himself to fight against his own state or his own people. I would submit to you the ANV battle flag, used to symbolize those who fought and died for that flag, is appropriately used at historical sites, and in its historical context. Most of these men laid down their lives for their home, and we should pity them for that, not erase a symbol away.
However, as I said, the modern use of this flag, similar to the false claims of “states’ rights” is now one of heritage. Like the swastika, it needs to go away because of what it symbolizes today, which is a lie, the lie of the Lost Cause.
As I said at the beginning, flags are symbols for the uniting of people for a cause. There is no just cause for the modern use of the ANV battle flag, and its only purpose is one of division and not unity. There is no just sacrifice being represented by displaying the ANV battle flag now, only the sacrifice of those taken by others who idealize it. The only things it stands for now are hate, intolerance, and a refusal to change.
I can’t imagine what it is like for a Jewish person to have a swastika waved in their face triggering the thought of the millions irradicated under that symbol. I similarly can’t imagine what it is like for an African American to have the ANV battle flag waved in their face considering the millions murdered, lynched, or beaten by those wielding it since the Civil War. For those reasons, the way it impacts other people, it needs to be retired and confined to use only in the historical context it was created for, the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia. Using it anywhere else is just a lie.
