United States Civil Flag

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The "United States Civil Flag"

The United States Civil Flag is a permutation of the current national flag that is reputed by some to be the true flag of the United States. According to its proponents, the current flag is actually intended to be the flag of the US Military and military posts, while the flag for civilian use has been dispensed with, lost, suppressed, etc. Its opponents reply that it's a hoax, created for various reasons, or simply the product of patriot mythology run amok.

This flag is a reverse of the regular United States flag in many ways. While still consisting of thirteen alternating red and white stripes and a number of stars equal to the number of states in the Union, the Civil Flag's stripes are vertical and the canton is white with blue stars.

1 The Story of the Flag
2 Evidence for and against the Civil Flag
3 Modern-day US Civil Flag usage
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] The Story of the Flag

According to those who promote it, the US Civil Flag was designed in 1799 to be flown at civilian posts and ports. They based this partially upon a passage from the introduction to The Scarlet Letter (viz., "The Custom House") by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The passage of note reads, From the loftiest point of its roof, during precisely three and a half hours of each forenoon, floats or droops, in breeze or calm, the banner of the republic; but with the thirteen stripes turned vertically, instead of horizontally, and thus indicating that a civil, and not a military, post of Uncle Sam's government is here established.

Advocates of the Civil Flag also claim that the flag started losing its use around the time of the Civil War, and especially after World War I. Many teach that this is indicative of the US being essentially ruled by the military (or at least very militaristic) and oppressive of the people, and those who promote this flag say they do so to push for a restoration of a peaceful Constitutional government.

[edit] Evidence for and against the Civil Flag

A political cartoon with a Customs Service flag flying to the immediate right of the official United States flag.

Most vexillologists consider the Civil Flag a hoax. First of all, they note that all pictures and paintings of the American Flag show it to have the standard horizontal stripes and blue canton with white stars. They also note that past peace movements used the current flag rather than any "Civil Flag."

It is believed that the Civil Flag idea is a misunderstanding of Hawthorne's text and the flag behind it, which is nothing more than the flag of the United States Customs Service, which is very similar to that of the U.S. Coast Guard. This flag [1], which was introduced in 1799, actually has sixteen stripes (as the U.S. had sixteen states at the time) and the number of stars did not change. The old pictures of the supposed Civil Flag have the sixteen stripes and logo of the Customs service. Since Hawthorne was writing about a "custom house", it would only be natural that they would fly this flag.

Critics also point out that no major flag company sells this flag and it appears in no other sources besides Hawthorne's writing. They maintain that the Civil Flag is either an intentional hoax to make money or promote a cause, or a result of muddled research.

[edit] Modern-day US Civil Flag usage

The Flag is seen as a marketing tool to get people to buy products representing the flag.^{[citation needed]} While it may or may not be dishonest of them to mislead consumers into purchasing memorabilia, it still has its market demands. Those who have chosen to protest their views on wartimes have used this flag to demonstrate their feelings on world politics. The meaning of the Civil Flag, accurate or false, potentially could represent an official view of the American People under an official/unsupported design.