Glenn,

I will never retract anything with regards to Howard Madaus, a man that invented the modern study of Confederate flags and one who has certainly become my mentor in the study of them. He has freely shared with me much of his 40 years of work, saving me loads of time in the study of Confederate flags.

As I have open my copy of Howard's monumental work on CS flags, I can find nothing in his introduction that even purports to be an "agenda." I have read it through just now and all he seeks to do is prove that there are more than one CS battle flag and that how it came about is how it actually came about - which is how I said it came about (and how Miles and Beauregard also said it came about - and please keep in mind here that you are challenging them, not just Madaus and myself). That is not an agenda - it is going with the facts as he found them, which is certainly far superior from a historian perspective than simply citing myths.

My only "agenda" with regards to CS flags is to finally do away with the myths and tell thr TRUE story about them - to do ANYTHING else is sheer folly and a waste of everyone's time.

I did not state that the Irish rebellion was "lore" - you need to re-read what I did say - that there is no PROVEN historical connection with that and the lore that came from it - and Hardee pattern battle flags. NONE! NICT! NADA!!!

Madaus said in his book that real historians work with the evidence they have, and I have found loads of evidence that you do not seem to agree with for whatever reason. That does not hurt my credibility whatsoever - but it does call your's into question, and not just by me, but by a lot of other people that have been emaling me about this discussion. If you write history you better use historical fact or you will be called on it. That's the way it works and has always worked. That is why historians cite sources with footnotes, and I can footnote both the creation of the Buckner/Hardee flag and the ANV flag - and neither of those sets of footnotes have anything about lore or mythology in them other than to tell how some folks thought they came about once upon a time.

Come up with an 1861-1862 statement by Gen. William J. Hardee that clearly states that he created that battle flag and used Irish lore as a basis for it and I will eat my words on this list and forever more when I speak about CS flags!!!!

You will have a hard time doing so, for there's nothing in his papers about it. I asked Nat Hughes, his biographer, that went through them. Hardee never claimed to have invented the flag, neither during the war or after it.

So I have to ask Glenn - what the Hell are you afraid of by Madaus, me, and other flag scholars like us, that seek to
get out the TRUTH about Confederate flags???? I was raised to believe that the truth shall set you free.

Lastly, Madaus is from Wisconsin. He also has a very sick sense of humor, which if you knew the guy, you would understand. We did not establish a dress code for the biographers on the Flags of the Confederacy website - and if you seek to denigrate the excellent information on that site simply because he is wearing that uniform, then you indeed do yourself a serious disservice as any type of flag historian!!!! The only other advice I would offer is not to look at his picture.

Lastly, my Confederate ancestors shook hands with the winning Yankees and said "you beat us fair and square", which is why so many Southern generals told their men to go back and become good Americans again - and dammit, they did! They all became great Americans once again and many went on to do tremendous things for our nation. This petty crap of hating Yankees 150 years after the fact is simply pointless in a time when Mustafa, Abdul and about 200 Million crazed Islamic wackos want to kill me, you, our families and, most importantly our great nation!!!!! It is sheer stupidity in light of what we face today in fact.

Madaus does not hate the South. He went to college at LSU, which is where he got interested in the serious study of CS flags. He broke the ground that all of us, and you, follow today, with 40 plus years of serious research, to the point that he is still considered THE Civil War flag historian by not only other flag historians, but museums, relic collectors, flag collectors, arms dealers (he is also THE expert on Confederate weapons and weapons in general) to the point that if any CS flag sells on the private market, it is considered somewhat suspect unless there is a Madaus letter of authenticity that comes with it! I should hope and pray to earn 20 per cent of the stature Howard Madaus has in the historical community!!!!!

Lastly, I brought up my Northern birth because you took a shot at it in your original post, as if only Southern born people can write about Southern flags, etc. Besides being pure horse poop, it matters not where you are born, but what you do after that by deed and word. What I intend to do is tell the story of Confederate flags, accurately, with proper citations and statements from those that made them, accepted them and fought under them and even died under them! You think I have no soul with regards to these flags because I reject mythology and yet you have no clue what I truly think about these flags or the men that bore them. Those men gave the flags soul - and life - in a manner that is very hard for 21st Century Americans to fathom not having been through what they went through. That is the only soul they need - the stories and blood of them men that carried them forward. No other soul even matters. Those stories stand on their own forever! And I deeply honor those incredbile men!

I have to be honest here Glenn - if all you want to do is take potshots at me or Howard Madaus because we reject myths and only seek to tell the story about CS flags in a fatual manner, then you are wasting not only our time, but the time of those people reading these posts. If you wish to continue this discussion, how about citing some facts from Miles, Beauregard, Hardee, etc. and let us know where these citations are located. Show us where Miles claimed that his flag was from Scots-Celtic lore in February 1861 when he designed it! Please let us know where Beauregard stated the same thing when he chose that flag in September 1861 for his army or when he sought to carry that flag out West in 1862! Please show us indeed where the crucifixion of St. Andrew was all that these two men were thinking about when they designed and adopted that flag despite them both being of French heritage! Please also show us how Southerners flooded the Committee on Flag and Seal with flag adorned with St. Andrews crosses to show, prove and celebrate their Scots-Celtic heritage in 1861 espcecially when they flooded it with designs most like the US flag!

Come up with solid, proveable documentation Glenn and we will listen to what you have to say, as good historians do.

I have $100 that says you cannot.

Greg Biggs