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This was the National Flag of Confederate States of America or the Confederacy which was flown in defiance against the United States during the ensuing American Civil War. The Confederacy's first official national flag often called the Stars and Bars, flew from March 4, 1861, to May 1, 1863.
It was designed by Prussian-American artist Nicola Marschall in Marion, Alabama, and resembled the Flag of Austria, with which Marschall would have been familiar. The original version of the flag featured a circle of seven white stars in the navy blue canton, representing the seven states of the South that originally comprised the Confederacy: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. The "Stars and Bars" flag was adopted March 4, 1861, in the first temporary national capital of Montgomery, Alabama, and raised over the dome of that first Confederate capitol.
Since the end of the American Civil War, private and official use of the Confederacy's flags, particularly the battle flag, has continued amid philosophical, political, cultural, and racial controversy in the United States. These include flags displayed in states; cities, towns and counties; schools, colleges and universities; private organizations and associations; and individuals.