Ah, the illegal aliens of the Emerald Isle.
... The Confederate Battle Flag—the The Southern Cross, Sept. 1861-April 1865
The "Southern Cross"
The best-known of all Confederate flags—the battle flag—is often erroneously confused with the national flag of the Confederacy. The battle flag features the cross of St. Andrew (the apostle was martyred by being crucified on an X-shaped cross), and is commonly called the "Southern Cross." A large degree of the Southern population was of Scottish and Scotch-Irish ancestry, and thus familiar with St. Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland. The stars represented the eleven states actually in the Confederacy, plus Kentucky and Missouri.
The Army of Northern Virginia was the first to design a flag with the cross of St. Andrew, and Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard proposed adopting a version of it as the standard battle flag of the Confederate army. One of its virtues was that, unlike the Stars and Bars, the Southern Cross was next to impossible to confuse with the Stars and Stripes in battle.
RELATED LINKS
Confederate Flag Controversy Confederate Flags of the New South Confederate States of America The Civil War Flags Around the World
The Confederate battle flag eventually developed wide acceptance throughout the Confederacy, but it was by no means the only battle flag. The Stars and Bars continued to be used, and after it was replaced with a new national flag, that flag—the "Stainless Banner"—also appeared on the battlefield. In addition, some states used their own flags in combat.
It should also be pointed out that there was no uniform Southern Cross flag—throughout the South slightly different versions of the original design were adopted. Even their shape varied: some were square, the traditional shape of battle flags; others were rectangular. Because the South did not have the industrial resources of the North, the creation of flags was handled by a variety of cottage industries throughout the Confederacy, which contributed to the variations.