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CSEflag1st

Alexander Martin Yarwood's submission, the "Stars and Bars", selected as the winning design by the First Convention

LowerEtora

The flag of Lower Etora, which served as partial inspiration for the "Stars and Bars"

Princelandsecessionflag

The "Princeland Secession Flag", possibly partial inspiration for the "Stars and Bars"

Cseflagproposal47

Timothy Richards' submission, the "Cross and Stripes Banner", liked by some within the Institute

The design and creation of the government, military and civil flags of the Confederate States shall be undertaken by a government organisation by the name of the "Confederate Vexillographic Institute", the Institute shall be headed by the office of the "Chief Vexillographer", who shall sit on the Confederate Cabinet.
—Part of Sec. 3. (8), Article I of the Constitution of the Confederate States of Earth

The Confederate Vexillographic Institute (C. V. I.) was a government organisation of the Confederate States of Earth which dealt with the designing, creation and production of government, military and civil flags of the Confederate States of Earth, as well as the registration of flags of the nation. Created by the Confederate Constitution, the C.V.I. was created to focus on the flags of the nation.

The institute was lead by the Chief Vexillographer, who had a seat on the Confederate Cabinet, the job of the Chief Vexillographer involved leading the institute, overseeing the fulfilment of government contracts, and displaying the various proposed flags to the Confederate Parliament, as well as making reports to the Parliament giving the institute's recommendation and selected flag. The Chief Vexillographer also organised national flag competitions, and narrowed down the numerous different entries to a dozen or so finalists.

To handle the selecting of a winning design during national flag competitions the institute formed the Committee on Flag and Seal, the purpose of this committee was to go through the numerous different entries for a national flag and seal, and then select a few finalists to show to the Parliament, whilst making a recommendation to the Parliament, other committees and branches of the institute dealt with other flags, the Committee on Flag and Seal only convened when the Confederate Parliament passed a motion to create a new national flag and/or a new national seal, as such it only convened three times, the first time in early 21 BBY, the second time in mid 21 BBY, and the final time in 4 ABY. The terms "First Convention", "Second Convention" and "Third Convention" were applied to the different meetings of the Committee.

The institute also sometimes produced its own flags to enter into competitions, and also produced flags, the institute and the institute's subsidiary factories produced flags for government, military and large business contracts, ordinary citizens and small businesses had to either produce their own flags or buy them from small flag making companies, who the institute had no right to interfere in the business of.

The First Convention particularly liked the "Cross and Stripes Banner" submitted by Timothy Richards during the first national flag competition by the C.V.I, the flag featured the "Striped Banner" of East Vertania, at the time still under occupation by then still Union-loyal nation of Kalland, Timothy Richards used East Vertania's stripes as a symbol of the Confederacy's freedom from Union occupation, and expressed a wish that the Confederacy may one day free East Vertania from her occupation, he added a "Battle Cross" battle flag for the union, reminiscent of a variant of Jane Zarkan's "Stainless Banner", which flew over her castle during the birth of the Confederacy, and was the flag of the Confederacy during the Valand Campaign.

In the end, his flag was beaten by the "Stars and Bars", though some in the C.V.I expressed approval of the flag. His flag was in the running to being adopted as the national flag.

"Some in the Institute have expressed their approval of Timothy Richards' "Cross and Stripes Banner", as some have taken to calling it. They particularly enjoyed the inclusion of the Stripes from the as of present imprisoned nation of East Vertania as a representation of our Confederacy's liberty from occupation by the Union. In Timothy Richards' notes, which he sent with a prototype sketch of the flag, he explained that the Stripes have a double meaning, that our Confederacy may one day liberate East Vertania from her occupation.

Also included is a union on the centre left hand side of the flag, this is rather unusual, since most cantons are placed within the upper left corner of the flag, but it is interesting to say the least. The union consists of a "Battle Cross" battle flag with a red Battle Cross atop a blue field, the canton is reminiscent of Jane Zarkan's Stainless Banner flag, the flag our founders met under to discuss the birth of our free nation, my associates did appreciate this symbolism.

It is the opinion of this institute that Timothy Richards' flag be placed for serious consideration, a misgiving, however, must be noted, that of the recollection of the flag to that of the old Union we liberated ourselves from, whilst the recollection is vague at best, the Union's flag possessing vertical, blue stripes instead of horizontal, red ones, the institute does recommend continuing our search for a national flag, one which has less resemblance to the banner of the Union we removed ourselves from.
-an excerpt from a report by the C.V.I. to the Confederate Parliament, describing Timothy Richards' flag

CSEflagposter

A poster detailing some of the flags submitted to the C.V.I.'s First National Flag competition

The First Convention selected Alexander Martin Yarwood's flag as the winner, Alexander's flag featured three horizontal bars, red, white and red, which was based the field of the flag of the State of Lower Etora, the flag from which Yarwood drew the most inspiration.

At the top of the hoist was a blue canton which extended two-thirds of the flag vertically, and about a third of the flag horizontally, within the canton were 10 white stars in a circle (though variants had the stars laid out 9 in the circle and 1 in the middle, as well as in rows or columns), which represented the founding 10 nations of the Confederacy. The flag was officially named the "First National Flag of the Confederate States of Earth", but was most commonly known as the "Stars and Bars". The canton was very similar to the Lower Etora flag's canton.

The flag replaced the "Stainless Banner" as the national flag the day after the Confederate victory in the Battle of Valley City. The First National Flag Act made official the choice of the "Stars and Bars" as the first national flag. The content of the act gave a description of a regulation "Stars and Bars" flag.

The Parliament of the Confederate States of Earth do enact-

That the national flag of the Confederate States of Earth shall consist of a red field with a white stripe extending horizontally through the centre of the red field, and equal in width to one-third the width of the flag. The red stripes thus created above and below the white shall be of equal width as the white stripe. The union blue shall be found within the upper portion of the hoist, extending two-thirds of the flag vertically, through the white stripe and stopping at the lower red one, whilst the union shall extend one-third of the flag horizontally. In the centre of the union there shall be a circle or constellation of white stars corresponding in their number to that of the number of nations within these Confederate States.

—Part of the First National Flag Act, the act then goes on to give specific dimensions for a regulation flag

Despite the act creating the "Regulation Flag", as flags produced to the act's specifications were known, there was a wide variety of different designs, some had the canton in different places, even removed entirely, some had different width stripes, some had the stars arranged in different layouts, some seemingly of random.

The very first "Stars and Bars" flag was raised above the Confederate Parliament on the very same day as the passing of the act, to much cheer and a military band playing "The Bonny White Flag", the crowd immediately fell in love with the flag design.

Never has God's cool breeze ever kissed a banner so majestic, wondrous and awe-inspiring as that of our First National Flag!
—A member of the crowd who witnessed the raising of the very first "Stars and Bars" flag, during the flag's raising

Alexander's flag proved so immensely popular with the nation that during the Second and Third Conventions the C.V.I. originally had planned remove any similarity with that of the Union from the flag, but the flag had become so ingrained in the Confederate national consciousness and popular culture the Committee found themselves being unable to remove the "Bars", they were even unable to adopt different coloured "Bars", the red-white-red "Bars" stayed on both the Second and Third national flags.

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