Day of the Flag — February 11 — Louisiana (1861) Most followers of the Vexillist will undoubtedly see the year 1861 and think, "Oh, it's something to do with the Confederate States of America." And, well, yes, but less than you might expect. While variations of its "Pelican Flag" were still used during the Civil War (just as before and after), Louisiana decided to create a new flag as a new Confederate state. They adopted this design on February 11, 1861. What's interesting is how little the flag reflects its political context and how much it looks to other points of Louisiana's history. The colors are colonial. The gold and red together refer to Spanish Louisiana while the red, white, and blue recall French Louisiana. We can also see that, like the flag of the U.S.A., there are 13 stripes. In the case of the American national flag (or Union flag in this context), those represent the 13 original colonies. I was not able to find any original sources explaining the symbolism, but it seems safe to assume this was a conscious "Star(s) and Stripes" message. After all they could have easily reduced it to having seven stripes, one for each of the seceding states, but they didn't. It's so un-confederate that one could be forgiven for thinking, "Why not bring that back?" We get so tired of the dreaded S.O.B. (Seal on a Bedsheet) in flag circles that an image like this with the cache of being historical seems appealing at first glance. But, as many people have been learning over the past few years, there's a big difference between preserving historical memory and pledging allegiance to the past. [V=] 💛❤️🤍💙 #dayoftheflag #flinsta #vexillology #flags #historicalflag https://www.instagram.com/p/CZ3HP_yMOz7/?utm_medium=tumblr