The second national flag of the Confederacy, at a distance, bore a close resemblance to the English white ensign, and was always objected to as resembling a flag of truce. These objections ultimately proved so valid that a broad transverse strip of red was added to the end, or fly, of the flag. This, the third and last national ensign of the short-lived Confederacy, was adopted by the Senate, February 4, 1865, and was thus officially described:
"The width, two-thirds of its length; the union—now used as a battle-flag—to be in width, three-fifths of the width of the flag, and so proportioned as to leave the length of the field on the side of the union twice the width below it; to have -a ground of red, and broad blue saltire thereon, bordered with white and emblazoned with mullets, or five-pointed stars, corresponding in number to that of the Confederate States. The field to be white, except the outer half of the union, which shall be a red bar, extending the width of the flag."
Specimens of each of these ensigns were captured, and are preserved in the Flag Museum of the United States War Department.
