because southern states were joiningthe union and the confederacy through 1861 they started out with seven stars and went up to officially 11. it would include 13 or 15, which optimistically was including places such as the arizona territory or southern california. this particular flag was a battle flag from the third florida infantry. this flag was carried by a company d. at the war's outset, every company did have their own flag, but this ultimately resulted in a lot of confusion. at the battle of first manassas , all of thel run company flags were to be sent home and each regiment would the issued one official battle flag. etch confederate army -- each confederate army selected a different design. this design is known as the army of northern virginia flag pattern. this would have been carried by every regiment fighting under lee.al robert e. other generals could pick whatever flag pattern they wanted. a rectangular version of this has become what most of us today consider to be the "confederate flag." this squareime pattern was the one that would happen carried only by regiments s