Position:Home>History> Is flying a Confederate flag any different from burning the American flag?

Flag use and flag desecration did not widely occur until after the civil war!. With the war's outbreak, scattered incidents of deliberate physical damage to the flag were reported from the South, including apparently the first protest flag burning in American history, at Liberty, Mississippi, on May 10, 1861!. In 1862, during the Union army's occupation of New Orleans in the American Civil War, the military governor, Benjamin Franklin Butler, sentenced William B!. Mumford to death for removing an American flag!. Today, defacing a flag is an act of protected speech under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, as established in Texas v!. Johnson, 491 U!.S!. 397 (1989), and reaffirmed in U!.S!. v!. Eichman, 496 U!.S!. 310 (1990)!.

Side Note:
Only after the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861, symbolically begun by Confederate troops firing on flag-bedecked Fort Sumter, South Carolina, transformed the Stars and Stripes into a true national icon (in the North)!.

The Confederate States of America used several flags during its existence from 1861 to 1865!. Each had its own meaning and purpose!. There was always disagreement over the nature of its symbolism!. Each unit had its own battle jacks, banners and state flag!. To this day several southern states still use aspects of the jack in their flags!.
Mississippi is a good example http://en!.wikipedia!.org/wiki/Flag_of_Mis!.!.!.

It is generally believed that the Confederate flag was a response to confusion on the battle field!. Most people did not wish to abandoned the traditional flag!. A compromise was reached where the red white and blue colors were retained but the design "using bars and stars" changed to the confederate flag we see today!.
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The Confederate units placed the greatest store in their regimental battle flags, each unique and "homemade" by local supporters!. In addition to the Stars and Bars, it was their own flags that guided their actions in battle!. Their capture in battle was a common important objective for both sides!.

A position of great honor in both armies was to serve as the unit's color guard, to carry the flag forward and never allow it fall!. It was a most dangerous duty in battle, and attracted inordinate fire and attention!.

In Union states involved in the War, still today there is display in the state capital, or state museum, of any Confederate battle flags captured in battle by units from the state!. A few exchanges and returns have been made on an ad hoc arrangement, but no general desire to surrender the battle trophies to their original homes!.

At war's end, at Appomattax, regimental flags were not surrendered with the unit's arms!. Mostly a color guard member folded and hid the flag to preserve it from the Union army!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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Before the modern KKK took it as a symbol that flag simply was the Confederate battle flag!. It was designed that way because the national flag was mistaken for Union flag in smoke and confusion of battle!. But a lot of present day Americans had family who fought and died under it!. They should not be penalized for a bunch of crazy fascist racists!. Believe it or not some these descendants are black and say the same!.!.!.!.!.OK in light of your added information still no!. There is nothing in the constitution that forbids seccession then or now!. The union was a group of states that voluntarily joined it and technically had the right to leave it!. The assumption is that the Civil War laid the principle that if a state(s) tried to the effort would be defeated by force!. That's true!. But it is also true that before the war was fought there was no such widely held belief!. The war is what established that!. So technically the south was no more wrong on constitutional grounds than the original thirteen colonies were in rebelling against Great Britain!. And the south was not the first area to threaten to secede!. New England was at the Hartford Convention during the War of 1812!.!.!.!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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This is an interesting question!.

The Confederate states did not consider themselves a part of the "Union"!. They were "The Confederate States of America"!. With their own government, separate and apart from the Union!.

So, while burning a flag (any nationality) is reprehensible, with feelings running as intense as they were, I imagine they did burn the Union Flag!. Just as Union soldiers probably burned Confederate flags!.

As far as flying the Confederate flag having been akin to burning the American flag, I have to say that it is an entirely different matter!. Just as flying the American flag is nothing like burning a flag from another nation!.





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yes it is different!. We may burn the flag with respect to dispose of a tattered flag!. Flying the confederate flag today only stands for southern pride!. I do not believe that any southerner but for some nuts would want the return of slavery!. Thank God the north won and God bless and rest in peace all the children men and women who died for this cause on both sides!. They were all heros to thier parents!. those who would burn the flag of the United States without respect should be cast out of our nation!. They do not deserve to live here!. Freedom came at a very special cost and should be respected by all!. Www@QuestionHome@Com

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In my opinion, the Confederates would not have burnt the American Flag
(a symbol of hatred of the US and all its political ideals) during the Civil War!. I don't think the Confederates saw the political system of the Union as so different from their own that they would hate it; both were representative democracies!. (Of course they disagree re slavery and states' rights, and warred passionately over it - But from the Southern side, this was a rejection of what the Union had become; not its fundamental values, as outlined in the Constitution!.)Www@QuestionHome@Com

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