I saw a very strange version of the American flag the other day, I was wondering if anyone here could tell me something about its history.

by mjk1093

It had blue stripes as well as red stripes, but the blue stripes were only on the bottom half of the flag, and it had only a few stars (either nine or sixteen).

The car parked in front of the house that was flying it had some Civil War stickers on it, so I assume it has something to do with the Civil War, but when I looked online I could not find any references to an American flag with blue stripes.

Searocksandtrees

It would be worth x-posting this question to the flag aficionados over in /r/vexillology : surely if anyone knows, it will be them!

flag_log

Can you recall more details about the flag? You say either nine or sixteen, does that mean they were arranged in a square grid? When you say the blue stripes were only on the bottom half of the flag, does that mean the last six or so stripes alternated white-blue-white-blue-white-blue? Or were there also red stripes in the lower half?

It sounds to me a bit like the Serapis flag but that doesn't quite match your description.

Lincoel

There are early version of the Confederate flag that has a few stars generally somewhere between 6 to 14. It has a broad red stripe on the bottom, a middle stripe of white, and then a another broad red stripe at the top. Perhaps it was some version of one of these. Like this? http://confederate-flags.org/IN%20PRAISE%20of%20Stars%20&%20Bars.html

phydeauxfromubuntu

Maybe it was one of the flags on this page? http://www.motherbedford.com/Flags33.htm