The battle flag symbolized a gamble by 11 states to create a nation dedicated (by its constitution) to defense and perpetuation of slavery. For soldiers, that meant an implicit link between their service and the national cause, a connection reinforced at familiar battlefields like Manassas, Shiloh, and Chickamauga. That connection endured even after the secessionist nation was crushed by a war it lost, and through Reconstruction and the bitter aftermath of Jim Crow segregation.Go here:https://ultimateflags.com/blog/history-of-the-confederate-flag/

Tracing the History of the Confederate Flag: Controversy and Legacy

By the 1940s, as young white Southerners mingled with northern and African-American comrades in the U.S. military and on the gridiron, they began to display the battle flag as a symbol of regional identity. But, unlike the national flag, the battle flag never lent itself to a sense of heritage or southern pride that could transcend its divisive past.

When Confederate President William Porcher Miles convened a convention to decide on a new national flag, there were so many models and designs sent in that he had trouble keeping track of them. Ultimately, he settled on the design we know as the Confederate battle flag. That featured a blue saltire, or St. Andrew’s cross, centered in a red field; inside the canton (union corner) were white stars for each state in the Confederacy, at first seven and then eleven. Miles’ other finalist design was a blue ring on a white field, but it was feared that such a flag might confuse the enemy as a signal of surrender or truce.