Re: Letter From Logan
Regarding the letter from Delwyn D. Logan purporting “to set some facts straight and correct some of the erroneous statements perpetrated by the Virginia Flaggers” about the display of the Confederate flag on I-95, elicits this response: The flag displayed is not the Stars and Bars, but the Saint Andrew’s cross, and the acknowledged battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia. The former flag is the first national flag consisting of three horizontal (two red and one white) stripes with a blue canton containing seven white stars.
Mr. Logan offers no explanation of his disagreement regarding the Virginia Flaggers position that the displayed flag is that of the Confederate soldiers. The eminent Museum of the Confederacy historian, John M. Coski, in “The Confederate Battle Flag: America’s Most Embattled Emblem,” makes the better argument that, by 1863, the flag was completely embraced by the armies in both theaters of the war, the Confederate Navy, and the Confederate government, which incorporated the St Andrew’s cross design in both subsequent national flags.
Mr. Logan is on firm ground with his third assertion, that the flag has been tarnished by its adoption by various groups promoting nefarious agendas. The flag has different meaning to different groups. One treads on shaky ground impugning the motives of the Virginia Flaggers. Some take them at their word about their motives. If so, they should be commended for reminding us that the battle flag also represents the courage and duty of those who defended it.
Dexter E Oliver
North Chesterfield
