Hello Hugh,

More below:

>>>>Another question - was the term "Southern Cross" used by the Confederate soldiers during the war to describe the flag, or is this primarily a Northern name given the ANV flag?>>>>

I have seen it called this many times in period Southern writings including newspapers. In fact, one newspaper wrote an editorial asking why it was called that when the Southern Cross (celelestial constellation) was not visible in the Northern Hemisphere! This constellation forms a Latin cross byt the way.

>>>>In another post somewhere recently, someone was quoting a Texas newspaper wartime report describing the presentation of a "battle flag" to a regiment in the Trans-Missisippi. The researcher's assumption was that this meant some TM variation of the Beauregard "Southern Cross" battle flag. Was the term "battle flag" a common Southern description of the Beauregard/Miles pattern? It seems hard to believe since there was such a large variation in battle flag (meaning regimental colors) designs adopted outside of the ANV throughout the war.>>>>

The term battle flag works for any flag that flew over any unit in combat no matter what it looked like. It was also indeed used to describe the ANV flag, which makes it somewhat confusing at times. So you have to be aware of where you are located geographically when you read "battle flag" in something to determine what pattern you are speaking about.

This is why the singular use of "battle flag" to describe one pattern of CS flag only is so misleading and innaccurate for, as we all know, Southern troops used up to 20 types of battle flags during the war.

Greg Biggs

>>>>By the way, for the benefit of other readers, Beauregard was a Roman Catholic.>>>>

Indeed he was.

Hugh