This has been churning in my mind, and you know bad things happen to ideas that get tangled there...

I have a May 27, 1861 presentation date for the company's early war flag. For sake of argument, say it left Waynesboro, Ga on May 26. I'm leaving off all lead time for who ever made it to lay out that nice balanced arrangement of stars, a couple extra days doesn't affect where I'm going.

Wikipedia's entry on the Confederacy - admittedly not the finest source - shows Arkansas seceded May 6, ninth State admitted to the Confederacy May 18; North Carolina May 7, tenth State on May 21; Tennessee seceded May 8, ratified by voters June 8, but not admitted to the Confederacy until July 2, State eleven.

I'm hung up on the dates here - when did first Nationals with eleven stars start showing up? In the summer of '61 Southerners (men in the 2nd Georgia) clearly expected additional border States to secede, so if they put eleven stars on prematurely, why not go all out and put stars for Maryland and Kentucky and Missouri on it? Again, you are one of the flag experts and can give a better answer than my musings, but these dates just makes things seem too early for this flag.

I also wonder why the company would have sent their flag home after the first color bearer was killed at Malvern Hill - the majority of the company had survived that battle, and except for what appears to be a blood stain (I suppose there's even a chance that its a water stain) there appears to be little if any battle damage. I think it more likely this flag was sent to Corporal Whitehead from home in the fall of '61 as "his" flag, and he was wearing it on his body or stuffed in his coat when he was killed, and sent home with his effects. Maybe I'm taking some big leaps here, and I will gladly yield to the greater flag expertise around me, but this last paragraph seems the most likely explanation.

If the dates I qouted above are wrong please correct, and depending how wrong could change my tune on this