No, That is Not a Confederate Flag on the Federal Government's Website

Confederate First National Flag or “Stars and Bars” (Source: Encyclopedia Virginia)

With all the rhetoric equating President Donald Trump and the Trump administration to the Confederacy, it should come as no surprise that people are losing their minds this morning over something they believe they are seeing on various government websites. The fact that many government websites went down temporarily last week or have been deleted have no doubt fueled this little conspiracy theory.

Here are a few screenshots that people are sharing from their survey of these different department websites.

Screenshots captured on Bluesky

Many are identifying this flag as the First Confederate National Flag.

Folks, this does not, in any shape or form, resemble a Confederate flag. You can see an example of the First Confederate National Flag at the top of the page.

The Confederate States of America’s First National Flag was commonly referred to as the “Stars & Bars.” This flag flew from 1861 to 1863. The number of stars changed as additional Confederate states seceded by May 1861, but they were always arranged in a circle. The flag also included two red and one white stripe.

Early in the war, the similarity of the design of the Confederate flag and the United States “Stars and Stripes” made it difficult to distinguish between the two in the heat of battle, most notably, during the First Battle of Bull Run. It is important to point out that their similarity also reflected the Confederacy’s claim as the rightful defenders of the Constitution and the memory of the American Revolution.

There were many Confederate flags adopted by the government and the military between 1861 and 1865. This chart is helpful, though by no means inclusive. You can see the First National at the top left and in the second row you will see the additional two national flags adopted by the Confederate government during the second half of the war.

(Source: Essential Civil War Curriculum)

The square battle flag is the flag that was used by regiments in what became known as the Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by Gen. Robert E. Lee. Those flags were often decorated with the names of battles fought and were considered prized possessions to be defended at all costs.

If you are interested in reading more about the history of these flags, I highly recommend John Coski’s book, The Confederate Battle: America’s Most Embattled Emblem. John’s book explores the flag’s Civil War history as well as how it came to symbolize the Lost Cause and how it was used as a symbol of “massive resistance” during the civil rights era.

If you don’t have the time to read the book, I recommend John’s entry on the flag’s history in the Essential Civil War Curriculum.

Here is John in a short video reflecting on the history and the controversy surrounding the Confederate flag.

Yes, I consider John Coski to be the expert on the history of the Confederate flag.

Returning to the federal government websites. If you open any of the sites under scrutinty on your desktop, you will see that it is clearly a US flag, located at the top left of the page, that is simply too small to include all 50 stars.

I have long maintained that we need to be careful about how we reference the past, especially the history of the Civil War era, in politically fraught moments like this. We need to exercise a healthy skepticism, regardless of where these claims come from on the political spectrum.

Study history before you use it simply to further divide Americans and sow mistrust in our government. There is certainly a good deal to be concerned about right now, but the United States government adopting the Confederate banner as its new flag is not one of them.