Thanks for posting this. A couple things:

1) Is there proof that the 7th Louisiana had a blue regimental flag? The CSA drill book, Hardee's Tactics, only called for a single flag in battle.

2) Miles never called his design the "St. Andrews Cross" at least at the time. Everything I have seen from him (including in his papers) called it a "saltier of heraldry." Miles was a heraldry expert and knew that this design actually went back to ancient Greece.

3) Too bad the image of the ANV flag shown was a First Bunting which was not made until June 1862. Far better would have been one of the actual ANV silk flags issued from November 28, 1861-December 9, 1861 of which the MOC has several.

4) I understand space issues but it would have been nice for the general public to learn about QM officers William Cabell and Colin M. Selph who were in charge of securing the cloth for these silk flags and the 120 made by three Richmond sewing circles.

5) It would also have been nice to detail that this pattern was met with resistance when Beauregard went West and that it would actually take until 1864 for it to equip most of a major western CS army - and even then one division still refused to carry it (Cleburne's).

For my flags column in Civil War News I will be writing a more in depth article on the creation of this flag but it was nice to see something about it in a regular newspaper.

Greg Biggs