"So the non-Irish in Cleburne's Division embraced the Irish revolution beliefs?"

It is my belief that virtually the entirety of the Confederate army believed that they were fighting a war against yankee tyranny and for Southern liberty. These were the identical principles of the Irish rebellion that I mentioned.

"OR did they identify with the flag they carried at Shiloh, Richmond, Perryville, Murfressboro, Chickamauga and Chattanooga where their blood and tears were tied to those flags?"

I do indeed believe that this was a common basis for their devotion, particularly during the last year of the war. The question still would be asked, what was the basis for the original design? The fact is, the full moon was a very well known symbol of Irish unity, particularly during the rebellion of 1798. Hardee was of Irish stock and in the position to claim the design which I believe he did while writing for MacGuire's History of the Irish a biographic article of Patrick Cleburne.

"I think its a little less of the heoric Irish revolutionary spirit that the men kept the flag."

Everyone has an opinion. I'll stick to mine.

"For Buckner to say he created the pattern, him being in the old Kentucky guard and the troops of central Kentucky adopting a very, very similar flag seems very logical."

I believe Buckner wrote this account around the year 1907, after everyone who could have contested his claim was dead. His account is so full of other errors that his claim cannot be considered accurate in other matters.

Until a smoking gun is found, this issue is like arguing as to what would have happened if Jackson had not been killed at Chancellorsville. (By the way, the war would have been over within a week and there would have been no Gettysburg.) But I believe that when people choose a flag as a symbol, they choose a flag that says something. I don't believe that anyone caring about the near future and the effect that such a flag would have on the men who were expected to follow it, would choose a state seal flag and erase the seal.

Just my opinion, but I like it.