I would say that the words to the song are symbolic, not related to finials at all.

Our Dixie forever! She's never at a loss!
Down with the eagle and up with the cross
We'll rally 'round the bonny flag, we'll rally once again,
Shout, shout the battle cry of Freedom!

The eagle had been the symbol of the United States since the Great Seal was adopted in 1782. The cross had been adopted as one of the symbols of the Confederacy by the (perhaps) more religious South, as reflected in their invocation of God in their Constitution, and by July 1862 (when the original song was written by George Root for the North) the adoption of the cross in variant forms in many of the Confederate regimental and battle flags.

Have you found any letters, diaries, or Southern newspaper articles describing using church flagstaffs with crosses on them by military companies or regiments? Having read many flag presentation accounts and speeches from Southern newspapers (see http://www.uttyler.edu/vbetts/newspaper_titles.htm for a searchable file) I've not seen any yet.

I'll add that I'm probably quite a bit older than you....at this point older than most that post here .... but I remember growing up when we had no flags in the Methodist Church in very conservative, very "Old South" East Texas, other than on the Sunday before the Fourth of July when the Boy Scouts brought in their American flag. Oh, and maybe Scout Sunday when the troop the church sponsored came in uniform and sat together. And I remember seeing my first Christian flag as a young adult, and wondered what was that and where did it come from. Flags were just not seen as proper in a sanctuary by many. Actually, about the only symbols used in the church then were the empty cross, the open Bible, and two lit candles. Methodists have gotten a lot "fancier" since then, and my "tall steeple" church displays both flags all of the time now.

And to tie that back to the Civil War era, my county in East Texas (Smith) was overwhelmingly Methodist and Baptist according to the 1860 Census--Social Statistic Schedules, with Methodists barely edging. If anything, the Baptists were less into symbols than the Methodists were. Throw in three different flavors of Presbyterians, a few Disciples of Christ, and one solitary Unitarian/Universalist congregation, and that's it, in a population of 13,392, almost 40% slave.

An added note: The Episcopal Church flag originated in 1918, and was not officially adopted until 1940. See: http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/rel-epis.html#origin

Very interesting discussion!

Vicki Betts