Essay On Confederate Flag

The ironclad CSS Virginia began a naval engagement on the Union fleet. On March 8, the battle lasted throughout the day. This engagement was part of a Confederate effort to break the Union blockade of the Southern ports. Unfortunately, the USS Monitor did not arrive in Hampton Roads until later at night, too late to preserve many of the Union ships from destruction.

The Battle of Hampton Roads, otherwise known as Monitor versus Merrimac, was the first engagement of two ironclad ships in battle. On March 8, 1862, the Merrimac, now christened the CSS Virginia, sunk two Union ships in addition to grounding another in an effort to prevent the Union from blockading southern ports. On March 9, the more significant battle began when the Confederate Virginia fired on the Union’s Minnesota. The Virginia then met its northern ironclad counterpart, the Monitor, at the mouth of the James River. The Virginia and the Monitor fired upon one another, though the incompetence of the crews rendered the shots ineffective. The volley continued for some time, causing people to flock to the shore, the docks, or nearby vessels in an effort to watch the action. Eventually, the Virginia had a successful shot at the Monitor, hitting the Monitor’s iron pilothouse. When the Monitor’s pilothouse was hit, iron shards flew everywhere and got into Commander Lieutenant John Worden’s eyes. This caused the Monitor to sheer off course and move into shallow water. The Virginia posed to attack the Minnesota, after deducing that the Monitor was out of commision at this point in time. Before attacking, the Virginia’s officers reported a leak in the bow, depleted ammunition, and that the steam powered engine was having trouble keeping pace. The battle ended in a draw as the Virginia headed back to its naval yard for repairs. The battle showed that in the future, all wooden ships and vessels would be obsolete in comparison to the ironclads that would soon became the new naval fighting

“Symbol of a brave past or banner of treason?” Kevin Baker asks this in his article titled That Flag. This is the question that many people have tried to answer. The Confederate Battle Flag has been used to send many different messages to the public, and depending on who you talk to it holds different meanings. As explained in the article titled Political culture, religion, and the Confederate Battle Flag debate in Alabama written by Jonathan I. Leib and Gerald R. Webster. The article explains that, “Many traditional white southerners view the Confederate Battle Flag as emblematic of the sense of duty and sacrifice of their ancestors during the Civil War and Reconstruction. They argue that the Civil War was not about the institution of slavery

Agiesta, Jennifer. " Poll: Majority sees Confederate flag as Southern pride symbol, not racist." CNN Politics. N.p., 2 July 2015.

The use of the so called confederate flag isn't really a national flag at all. The commonly used symbol of the south and recently debated symbol has come under fire as racist and as a symbol of white supremecy. In true meaning the flags shown above are all different variations of flags flown by the confederate states during their four year succession from the united States. The battle flag is the one most commonly used as a symbol of southern pride. Many believe the flag portraits proslavery views which it does not. The flags colors stand the same meaning for those on old Glory but the thirteen stars represent the thirteen succeeded states. This flag never flew for slavery but only for the rights of the individuals from 13 states. This flag

Within 12 minutes of union tugs firing upon the Virginia with no effect but to dent her armor the Virginia head on rammed the sloop-of-war USS Cumberland below the water line. 150 men died aboard the Cumberland as the crew continued to fire upon the Virginia until the last cannon sunk below water. The Cumberland then turned her attention immediately to the USS Congress that had been firing upon it from behind. Seeing what had accorded to the Cumberland the captain of the Congress, Lieutenant Joseph Smith, in a last resort grounded his ship in shallow water where the Virginia could not ram them. Yet, under fire from the shell shot of the Virginia that could shed through wooden ships, the Congress surrounded within the hour badly damaged. Seeing two of the Union’s prime ships taken down in only two hours a Union battery on a Northern peninsula of Hampton Roads opened fire on the Virginia in an attempt to cripple her and save the remaining union ships that had mistakenly run aground during maneuvers in the battle. In response the Virginia fired burning cannon balls into the Congress setting her ablaze and eventually reaching her magazine where she exploded. 110 of the Congress crew died from the attack. By the end of the day the Virginia had lost two guns, two sailors and had several iron plates had loosened while she had been responsible for 400 deaths and the loss of two war ships.

Colonel William Moultrie in 1775 was asked by the South Carolina voters to design a banner for the use of South Carolina State Troops. Moultrie decided to approach the flag with a simplistic and direct design that displayed the crescent on a blue field. The new flag was the same blue color of the soldier's uniforms and the silver crescent was the symbol that the soldiers wore on the front of their caps. The crescent moon was not the only form of symbolism used for the state flag also the flag has a palmetto tree, which is to high importance and relevance to the state of South Carolina.

I need help trying to understand this event in Virginia that has been replicated in other cities where citizens have protested the removal of Confederate monuments. I'm not aware of any other country that has monuments that celebrate the loser of a conflict or war and on top of that to celebrate the absolute WORST part of American history. Are there monuments to celebrate Hitler and the Nazi reign in Germany? Are there monuments to celebrate apartheid in South Africa? What reason do Confederate monuments serve when the majority of the atrocities that occurred during that time are either ignored or minimized in the history books?

This flag has been explained in many different ways, and people’s opinions are not always satisfying. America’s southern states seceded

During the end of 1861 the Confederate battle emblem had become increasingly common on Civil War battlefields. Although, it is important to note that the battle flag was never the official flag of the CSA (Webster and Leib). The flag that finally represented the Confederacy on land and sea was the national flag and it was this flag which the people of Civil War days as well as later knew. While creating the flag everyone in the south wanted a say in what the flag was going to look like. The widespread feeling, was to have the flag look very similar to the stars and stripes flag of the union but different (Coulter). The committee that created the Confederate flag came to the decision that the flag would be called “Stars and Bars”. The flag was described as “shall consist of a red field with a white space extending horizontally through the center, and equal in width to one-third the width of the flag. The red space above and below to be of the same width as the white. The union blue extending down through the white space and stopping at the lower red space. In the center of the union a circle of white stars corresponding in number with the States in the Confederacy” (Coulter). Growing up in the south I can personally say I agree with Coulter that the Battle flag is the more commonly known. The supporting side believes that the flag is

The Confederate States of America, also known as the confederacy was a group of 11 Southern states that seceded from the Union in 1860. The desire to preserve the institution of slavery was motivation for secession and primary cause of the American Civil War. A confederate statue was often put in place of honor Confederate leaders, soldiers or states. Statues started to appear in 1900, as the states enacted Jim Crow laws to disenfranchise African Americans and segregated society. Statues also came up between the 1950s and 1960s as a backlash against the civil rights movement. The removal of statues would result in debt and a burden to taxpayers. As of today, there are about 1,503 Confederate symbols across the country. This ranges from schools,

Before engaging in discourse regarding the Confederacy, it is important to understand what, exactly, it was about. The Confederate States of America were formed in 1861 as a way for the deep South to continue owning slaves, due in part to the fact that their agricultural industries depended on slave labor to operate. While they did stand for other things, the origin and primary goal of the Confederacy was to fight against those who wanted to abolish slavery. Because of this, Confederate memorabilia and monuments are fundamentally linked with slavery and racism, and this aspect must be remembered when discussing what to do with regards to Confederate monuments.

The confederate flag, one of the most controversial image of the American culture, was adopted on May 1, 1863, which was percipated by the issue of slavery. It was initially adopted as the battle flag by the army of Northern Virginia. And, even though it was never officially

personal liberties shall be protected as long as they do not cause reasonable harm to another individual. It is incredibly difficult and unjust to promote a system to which state authority prevents speech that they find offensive. It is nearly impossible and impractical for a state entity to understand what can and can’t be considered offensive, and what is offensive to some and not to others. That is why the harm principle is a great principle to understand the limits of how far free speech should and can go. Free speech should be protected and promoted so long as it does not create credible harm to another persons individual liberties. Credible and reasonable harm should thus be defined as harm that occurs to ones idnivual liberties including: life, liberty, and property. For example Looking at the confederate flag, one can see the conflict of harm versus free speech it imposes. The idea of the original confederate flag did stand as symbol of racism and pro-slavery. The confederate flag was in its due time flown as a symbol of war and a threat against those who do not stand by the principles of the confederation. During the civil war the confederate flag could very legitimately be seen as a harmful form of free speech. However in present day, the confederate flag, for the most part does not carry the same meaning or same threat. Many people, who express themselves through the confederate flag as a symbol, do so as a form of showing southern pride or southern heritage.

Despite popular belief the Confederate flag we know today was not the flag of the Confederacy during the civil war. There were quite a few flags before the “stars and bars” we know of today. The flag we see today was originally the battle flag of the Northern Virginia army, led by General Robert E. Lee. Before adopting the stars and bars as the official flag, the Confederacy used a flag with seven stars and three red and white stripes. Once the number of states in the Confederacy increased to thirteen and they used the same design with thirteen stars. As the war was coming to a close, the Virginia battle flag became more popular. The flag was added to a white and red flag but some thought that looked too much like a white flag of surrender so the leaders decided to take out the white and red stripes and white background, and simply made the flag the “stars and bars” we know of today. (AHO, Web.