We actually call this the flag of the Army of Kentucky which was the name of Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith's command formed of four divisions for the KY Campaign of 1862.

Little is known about the flags including who made them (perhaps in the field by men with tailoring skills) or how many units got them (perhaps only John McCown's division). Only three of them survive today.

As McCown was of Scottish descent he may have been the inspiration behind the flags as they are indeed, unlike the ANV flags, based on the flag of Scotland - blue field with solid white St. Andrews cross with the addition of a white exterior border. The ANV flags, designed by William Porcher Miles, was a compromise design when the Charleston Jewish community and fundamentalist Christians of the South complained about the possible us of a national flag with the St. George's cross. Miles simply tilted the cross on an angle, calling it the proper heraldic name, the saltier of heraldry based on the ancient Greek cross. Miles also stated at the time that it had no ecclesiastical connections thus shooting down the cross of St. Andrew connection.

Greg Biggs