"STARS AND BARS"
Images of 12 Star versions of
the first Confederate national flag.

12 star Garrison Flag
by Wayne J. Lovett
from a sketch by Howard M. Madaus

"The Brown Moutain Boys" 2nd Battalion North Carolina Infantry Photo courtsy of the North Carolina Museum of History, Raleigh, North Carolina © North Carolina Museum of History

This unit was raised in the west central area of Stokes County, North Carolina, and was mustered in on May 1, 1861. Eventually the company became part of the 2nd Battalion North Carolina Infantry. Their flag of wool buntingf, based on the first national "Stars and Bars," was likely made by community women and presented to the company soon after its formation.

The 2nd North Carolina Infantry Battalion arrived on Roanoke Island, North Carolina, on the morning of February 8, 1862 -- just in time to be surrendered with all other defending Confederate forces. Later the battalion became part of tht Army of Northern Virginia and served throughout the war. Only 52 members were present to receive their paroles at Appomattox on April 12, 1865.

In the post-war regimental history by William P. Derby, entitled Bearing Arms in the Twenty-seventh Massachusetts Regiment of Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War 1861-1865, the author noted the regiment captured two rebel flags at Roanoke Island. One was described as containing "twelve stars in a blue field, surrounding a sickly representation of an eagle, with the inscription, "Brown Mountain Boys, Stokes County, N.C." Following the battle the captured flag was sent to Massachusetts by a member of the Twenty-seventh Massachusetts. There it remained in private hands until it was purchased by the North Carolina Museum of History Associates, Inc., in 1987 and brought back to North Carolina.

Tom Belton

Flag of Col. Gould's 6th Texas Cavalry Battalion By Wayne J. Lovett, 31 January 2000 Classifying this as a 12 star flag involves counting the 11 white stars and the large red star in the canton. If only the white stars in the canton are counted, it is an 11 star flag; if the star in the shield on the white bar is also counted, it is a 13 star flag.

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