Stump the German

[Eva Elisabeth]

Kudos, excellent teamwork, Roger and Tom!!!

For all the Germans and other foreigners coming across the thread that are as unknowledgeable as I was on the flag history (credit to wiki):

Nicola Marschall (1829 - 1917), son of a wealthy Prussian family of tobacco merchants, supported the Confederate cause during the American Civil War, and designed the original Confederate flag, the Stars and Bars, as well as the official grey uniform of the Confederate army.

Mary Clay Lockett, wife of Marion attorney Napoleon Lockett, requested Marschall to take part in the competition to create a new flag to represent the Confederate States of America. Marschall's flag was first raised in Montgomery, Alabama on March 4, 1861.

William Porcher Miles (1822 -1899), while serving in the Confederate Provisional Congress, chaired the "Committee on the Flag and Seal," which adopted the "Stars and Bars" flag as the national flag of the Confederacy. Miles opposed this selection because, he felt, it too much resembled, as supporters of it admitted, the old Stars and Stripes. Miles argued:

"There is no propriety in retaining the ensign of a government which, in the opinion of the States composing this Confederacy, had become so oppressive and injurious to their interests as to require their separation from it. It is idle to talk of 'keeping' the flag of the United States when we have voluntarily seceded from them."

Miles favored his own design, which, although rejected by the committee, eventually became the Confederate (Battle) Flag.

Due to the heated debate on the different personal perceptions of what the Confederate flag represented and represents today, I wanted to find out more on what the original meaning was, and if the flag was or derrived from anything that had been a symbol for southern culture and heritage prior to secession. I found this fascinating website:
http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Conf..._Flag#its1

Roger and Tom, you win George Balanchine's 1958 choreography "Stars and Stripes" (on John Philip Sousa's music) which Russian-born Balanchine ("founder" of American ballet) created as salute to his adoptive country:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=soaHshlFBNI