THE BONNIE BLUE FLAG

The flag itself - a single white 5-point star on a dark blue field - first appeared in 1810 as the banner of the 'Republic of West Florida', but was quickly ushered off history's stage by the Louisiana Purchase after hardly 3 months. Some years after, another version reappeared, representing the 'Republic of Texas', in late 1836.

The 'Bonnie Blue Flag' cheered in the song, was written by Harry Macarthy, a comedian and song-and-dance performer who emigrated from Ireland in 1849. Calling himself the 'Arkansas Comedian', he and his wife Lottie toured throughout the south in the years before the war, giving what they called 'personation' shows.

Macarthy borrowed the melody of a catchy Irish folk tune called "The Irish Jaunting Car" (popular in the mid-1850's Victorian British Isles), and wrote lyrics that turned it into an early-war, patriotic narrative song that tells the story of the state-by-state formation of the Confederate States of America in order of their secession. Published in no fewer than six editions from 1861 to 1864, the song soon became hugely popular with both southern soldiers and civilians, and was even banned by the Union commander in New Orleans, the publisher's home town. In early 1861, Macarthy and his wife, who had been performing in New Orleans, debuted the song in a concert at Jackson, Mississippi, using it as the finale to their act. They went on to sing it for Jefferson Davis's inauguration as President of the young Confederacy in Montgomery, Alabama, in February of '61.