Red over white flags were typically for the US Cavalry and it is a pattern that the CS cavalry did not adopt during the war. A few SC artillery companies of Hampton's Legion did copy this pattern but I cannot think of any Confederate cavalry unit that did so based on surviving flags.

This might be a post-war, post-Reconstruction flag for an Alabama unit if it is as old as you say - even up to the Spanish-American War. The US Cavalry, which from 1862 through the end of the Civil War dropped these red over white flags in favor of the National flag for their regimental and guidon banners, went back to this pattern again after the war but then switched back to the Stars and Stripes sometime in the 1880's (if I correctly recall the date).

In order to make any decisions about your flag we would need to see a picture of it if you could do so and post it here. Bob Bradley from the Alabama Dept. of Archives & History frequents this list and would like to see it was well.

Greg Biggs