The Bonnie Blue Flag was an unofficial banner of the Confederate States of America at the start of the American Civil War in 1861. It closely resembles the flag of the short-lived Republic of West Florida of 1810.
The flag, consisting of a single, five-pointed white star on a blue field, was flown from the capital dome of the state of Mississippi, which seceded in January 1861. Harry Macarthy helped popularize the flag as a symbol of the Confederacy by composing the popular song "The Bonnie Blue Flag" early in 1861. Some seceding southern states incorporated the motif of a white star on a blue field into new state flags.
Although the name "Bonnie Blue" dates only from 1861, several authors have claimed that the Civil War flag is identical with the banner of the Republic of West Florida, which broke away from Spanish West Florida in September 1810 and was annexed by the United States 90 days later. In 2006 the state of Louisiana formally linked the name "Bonnie Blue" to the West Florida banner by passing a law designating the Bonnie Blue Flag as "the official flag of the Republic of West Florida Historic Region".
In 2007 one of six known Bonnie Blue flags from the Civil War era was sold at auction for $47,800. The flag had been carried by the Confederate 3rd Texas Cavalry and later exhibited as part of the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition.
Read more about Bonnie Blue Flag: In Popular Culture
Famous quotes containing the words bonnie, blue and/or flag:
“Wee image of my bonnie Betty,
I fatherly will kiss and daut thee,
As dear an’ near my heart I set thee
Wi’ as guid will,
As a’ the priests had seen me get thee
That’s out o’ hell.”
—Robert Burns (1759–1796)
“Rather than have it the principal thing in my son’s mind, I would gladly have him think that the sun went round the earth, and that the stars were so many spangles set in the bright blue firmament.”
—Thomas Arnold (1795–1842)
“Hath not the morning dawned with added light?
And shall not evening call another star
Out of the infinite regions of the night,
To mark this day in Heaven? At last, we are
A nation among nations; and the world
Shall soon behold in many a distant port
Another flag unfurled!”
—Henry Timrod (1828–1867)