This printed Confederate First National Flag measures 7” by 3” and bears eight stars, likely dating it just after the official secession of Viriginia on April 17, 1861, and sometime before the declared secession of Arkansas three weeks later, on May 6, though Virginia was not officially admitted to Confederacy until May 7 and the state convention did not officially ratify their Ordinance of Secession until May 23. In any case, the flag dates very early in the war, with Confederacy consisting of just seven states until April and expanding to eleven in short order after that.

The flag was intended for civilian patriotic use though some very early war Confederate soldiers sport them in photographs. It is printed on one piece of cloth and has a narrow sleeve for a short stick on which to wave it. Flags of this size and form are often termed “bible flags” by collectors from their not infrequent preservation in old southern family bibles, where they might have served as a bookmark, but where they also might rest, undiscovered by U.S. authorities in the postwar years. The fabric is solid and the colors are very good, with the obverse (canton at left) showing somewhat deeper colors and the reverse a tad lighter from wear or exposure and the fly end showing just a little soiling.

Since secession of the eighth state followed the firing on Fort Sumter and the outbreak of a shooting war, this is a particularly significant little flag.  [sr][ph:L]

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