Modern display of the Confederate flag initially proposed, and rejected, as the national flag in 1861. The design was instead adopted as a battle flag by the Army of Northern Virginia (ANV) under General Robert E. Lee. Most popular today is a rectangularized variant of the originally square ANV battle flag, common in modern reproductions. (A similarly rectangular flag was used during the war by the Army of Tennessee under General Joseph E. Johnston.) Despite never having historically represented the Confederacy as a country nor been officially recognized as one of its flags, it is commonly referred to as "the Confederate Flag" and has become a
Confederate Army of the Potomac the spring of 1862, Johnston's army was transferred to the Richmond area, where the Army of the Peninsula and the Confederate garrison of Norfolk, Virginia, were incorporated into the army. At this time in the Peninsula Campaign, the army was officially renamed the Army of Northern Virginia, although Johnston continued to use the name Army of the Potomac until he was wounded. Confederate Army of the Potomac The Confederate Army of the Potomac, whose name was short-lived, was the command under Brig. Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard in the early days of the American Civil War. Its only major combat