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
First Corps, Army of Northern Virginia charge of the Left Wing. With the authorization of corps later that year, the Right Wing was redesignated as the First Corps. At this time, Longstreet's corps contained twenty-one brigades organized into five divisions under major generals Lafayette McLaws, Richard H. Anderson, George E. Pickett, and John B. Hood, and Brigadier General Robert Ransom, Jr. Note: see Fredericksburg order of battle for the command structure of the Army of Northern Virginia at this time. The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, starting on December 11 and concluding December 15, 1862, between Lee's Army of Northern Virginia