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
Fourth Corps, Army of Northern Virginia Commanded by temporary Lt. General Anderson, it was made up of units that before had served around Richmond and Petersburg as part of General Beauregard's Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia. The Fourth Corps spent the winter of 1864/5 encamped around Petersburg as part of the Army of Northern Virginia. In April the Army of the Potomac, under General Ulysses Grant, broke through the defences and successfully concluded the siege of Richmond, initiating the start of the Appomattox Campaign. The Fourth Corps retreated with the rest of General Lee's Army but was largely destroyed in the Battle of Sailor's