The Daily Dispatch: January 2, 1862., [Electronic resource]

The Confederate flag.

‘ Description:--The flag is divided into three parts. The first and third equal in size — the middle one-third or one-fourth as wide as either of the other, forming a narrow strip between them.

’ The first part next the staff is blue, with a broad curving belt running diagonally from the lowest corner near the staff, to the corresponding opposite corner of the top. This belt is formed by lines or strips of white. It represents the zodiac, or path of the sun through the heavens. In the centre is placed a large figure of the sun formed of white. In the corner spaces, above and below the belt, are white stars equal to the number of the Confederate States.

The middle portion of the flag is a perpendicular belt of white. The part on the right is red.

Explanation.--The blue is the color of the sky; the stars represent the States, while the sun is the symbol, not of any particular idea, but of beneficent influences in general — light, heat, life, quickening energy, fertility, purity, love, Joy, elevation, glory, the fervid rays of the natural sun darling on our Southern land, the favor of Deity, Christianity, the National Constitutional Government dispensing its blessings to all the States, and forming the centre and bond of unity between them, as the sun holds together, illuminates, warms, and cheers the solar system.

The other parts, white and red, are designed simply to give variety of color, distinctness, and effect to the flag. The whole, in the writer's estimation, would constitute a beautiful and striking banner, eminently appropriate as the ensign of our Southern nation. Although the stars are retained, yet as the sun is the central and most conspicuous figure upon it, it may properly be denominate, "The Flag of the Sun." It is true that when the sun shines the stars are invisible, but still they are in the heavens, and the track of the sun is among them. Hence, as emblems of the States, considered individually and numerically, they are placed upon the flag.