Why the Confederate Battle Flag?
In Samuel R. Watkins’s memoir Co. Aytch, he wrote the following, “Once more the Maury Grays are permitted to put their feet upon their native hearth, and to revisit their homes and friends, after having followed their tattered, and torn, and battle-riddled flag, which they had borne aloft for four long years, on every march, and in every battle that had been fought by the Army of Tennessee….But, parents, here are your noble and brave sons; and, ladies, four years ago you gave us this flag, and we promised you ‘That we would come back with the flag as victors, or we would come not at all.’ We have been true to our promise and our trust. On every battlefield the flag that you entrusted to our hands has been borne aloft by brave and heroic men, amid shot and shell, bloody battle, and death. We have never forsaken our colors. Are we worthy to be called the sons of old Maury county?” Mistakenly called the “Stars and Bars”, the Army of Northern Virginia (ANV) A.K.A. “St. Andrew’s Cross” pa
