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Flag of Alabama

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The flag of Alabama

The flag of Alabama was adopted by Act 383 of the Alabama state legislature on February 16, 1895.

"The flag of the State of Alabama shall be a crimson cross of St. Andrew on a field of white. The bars forming the cross shall be not less than six inches broad, and must extend diagonally across the flag from side to side." - (Code 1896, §3751; Code 1907, §2058; Code 1923, §2995; Code 1940, T. 55, §5.)

A cross of St. Andrew is a diagonal cross, known in vexillology as a saltire. Because the bars must be at least six inches (15.24 cm) wide, small representations of the Alabama flag do not meet the legal definition and can not legally be considered "flags" of Alabama.

It is commonly believed that the crimson saltire of the Flag of Alabama was designed to resemble the blue saltire of the Confederate Battle Flag. The Battle Flag was square-shaped, and Alabama's flag is sometimes shown as a square. However, although the legislature did not specify the proportions, a "cross of St. Andrew" is understood to be rectangular. The authors of a 1917 article in National Geographic expressed their opinion that because the Alabama flag was based on the Battle Flag, it should be square. In 1987, the office of Alabama Attorney General Don Siegelman issued an opinion in which the Battle Flag derivation is repeated, but concluded that the proper shape is rectangular, as it had been depicted numerous times in official publications and reproductions. [1]

The saltire design of the Alabama state flag also bears resemblance to several other flags. It is identical to the flag of Saint Patrick, incorporated into the Union Flag of the United Kingdom to represent the union of the Kingdom of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland. However, it likely owes its origin as a simplification of the Cross of Burgundy Flag used by the Spanish in the New Spain and as the basis of military flags such as that of the Regimiento de Infanteria de Luisiana which took part in the Battle of Mobile as part of the Gulf Coast campaign of the American Revolution. [2]

1861 flag

On January 11, 1861, the Secession Convention passed a resolution designating a flag designed by a group of Montgomery women as their official flag. One side of the flag displayed the Goddess of Liberty holding in her right hand an unsheathed sword; in the left a small flag with one star. In an arch above this figure were the words "Independent Now and Forever". On the other side of the flag was a cotton plant with a coiled rattlesnake. Beneath the cotton plant are the Latin words: "Noli Me Tangere", (Touch Me Not). This flag was flown until February 10 1861, when it was removed to the Governor's Office after it was damaged by severe weather. It was never flown again.

References


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