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Confederate battle flag flying above the South Carolina Capitol


This Confederate battle flag was never the official flag of the Confederacy.

The Confederate States of America went through three different flags during the Civil War, but the battle flag wasn’t one of them. 

Instead, the flag that most people associate with the Confederacy was the battle flag of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.

Designed by the Confederate politician William Porcher Miles, the flag was rejected for use as the Confederacy’s official emblem, although it was incorporated into the two later flags as a canton.