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Before discussing civil war flags, we need to make a brief intro regarding flags in general and their purpose. Flags were used since the beginnings of history. Flags serve a wide variety of purposes and convey a shared history feeling. They symbolize the people and the national pride, affirming the group’s identity. They also build morale and pride and represent the honour of the group. In time all military formations have carried flags and colors. In battle, flags served as rallying points when the formations were broken. Soldiers gathered around the flag to regroup, attack or retreat.
Flags marked specific individuals, locations and functions. At the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, both Northern and Southern troops went to war with their own civil war flags and colors. The women of the unit’s hometown made flags for their men; as a result many companies had their own flag designs that distinguished them from the others. Most regiments had 10 companies and, obviously a big number of flags. Soon officers became aware of the danger of having so many flags and measures were taken to reduce their number.
Thus a federal regiment had two flags, the American and the regimental civil war flags. A system of flags and badges was introduced by Union Army Major General Joseph Hooker to make the identification of different commands easier. The civil war flags played a very important role on each and every battlefield as they were the heart and soul of every regiment. As a result they were protected at a huge cost in flesh and blood. A usual command during the civil war was for the men to close on colors, to gather around the civil war flags when the groups were disorganized. When the advance faltered, the colonel would give the order „Advance the colors” in order to inspire his people to follow their sacred civil war flags.
To understand the importance of the flags and colors you should know that a large percentage of Medals of Honour were awarded to people for their actions involving civil war flags. It was actually a great honour to be the flag bearer but, unforytunately, the mortality rate for color bearers was quite high as the aim of the enemy was to shoot that person and capture the flag of the opposing force.
Many of these civil war flags have been preserved due to the actions of Pennsylvania Capitol Preservation Committee who have about 390 civil war flags for the state of Pennsylvania in their custody. The design of the civil war flags was similar to that of the National flag, the Stars and Stripes which was enacted into law on the 4th of April 1818. Yet, this act established the basic pattern of the flag as we know it today without defining the arrangement of the stars.

The Brazil flag is named auriverde, that is „of gold and green”. It is used as the national flag and ensign of Brazil. If we were to describe the Brazil flag we’d have to say that it a blue disc depicting a starry sky spanned by a curved band inscribed with the national motto, within a yellow rhombus and on a green field.

The Brazil flag was designed by Raimundo Teixeira Mendes. The white stars are of five different sizes. The motto inscribed in capital letters of the same shade of green as the one used for the field says „Ordem e Progresso” which means „Order and Progress”.

 
The modern Brazil flag was officially adopted as the national flag on the 19th of November 1889. The design of the Brazil flag belongs to Raimundo Teixeira Mendes who created it with the help of Miguel Lemos and Manuel Pereira. The current Brazil flag and ensign maintain the same design/pattern mainly. Yet, minor alterations have been made to it. Actually the 27-star version of the Brazil flag was accepted and adopted on the 12th of May 1992.
When Brazil was first proclaimed a republic, one of the men of the time, a lawyer, who had recently been named Minister of Finances and Taxation, Ruy Barbosa, came up with a new design for the national Brazil flag. The proposed design was without a shadow of a doubt inspired by the US flag. This flag had the chance to survive and be used for only four days from the 15th to the 19th of November, 1889. At that time, Deodoro da Fonseca vetoed this Brazil flag design proposed by Barbosa.
Deodoro da Fonseca the - „Father of the Republic” – asserted that this design was too much of a copy of the flag of a different country. Fonseca suggested that the Republican Brazil flag should look like the former Imperial flag. It was only decided on a minor change, namely the replacement of the royal crest with a new design. By maintaining the former royal Brazil flag it was meant to reassert the continuation of the national unity during this transition period. When Teixeira’s design was presented to the president he immediately agreed with it.

Regarding the colours and the significance of the design on the Brazil flag, it is known that the colors green and yellow are the colours of the the Imperial families whose descendants Pedro I and Leopoldina, his wife, formed the first Imperial couple who founded the Brazilizn monarchy. The meanings are changed on the modern republican Brazil flag. The green background symbolizes the forests, the yellow thombus represents the mineral richness of Brazil and the blue circle is the sky above Rio de Janeiro on the morning when Brazil was declared a republic.

It is generally known that flags are states and nations symbols. They represent individual states and nations’cultures and traditions and they are of great importance to each and every state. The colors and patterns of each flag have certain meanings and symbolize certain things for each country. The American flags are no different from this perspective from any other flag in the world. When talking about American flags we should take into consideration their history and background, colors, design and symbolism as well as etiquette.
The American flags are of huge importance and respect to the Americans. They almost identify with the nation. All the 50 American states have their own flags. The individual state flags are all different in pattern and colors, as well as significance. The American flag was introduced on June 14, 1777, with only 13 stars and 13 stripes on it, in red and white colors. The American flags stayed unchanged until 1795 and ever since, they suffered a lot of changes. At the time it was designed, the significance of the colors was already there: red meant bravery/courage and zeal, too, and white was meant for purity and peace.
The blue would stand for the sky and respect to God. Colors are really important as they have a meaning in themselves. The different American flags have different meanings judging only from the color perspective. For instance the flag of Arizona has in its pattern 13 red and yellow rays which represent the sun and the 13 american colonies. Besides, there is a copper colored star in the middle of the flag which stands for the copper mining in Arizona. To be even clearer, let us take another of the American flags example, namely that of Colorado. Here the white part stands for the mountain tops always covered by snow, whereas the red stands for the reddish soil in the country. The blue means the sky and the golden yellow signifies the sun.

The current 50-star version of the American flags was adopted on the 4th of July, 1960. Another name by which the American flags are called, besides Stars and Stripes, is that of Old Glory and the star-spangled banner – which is also the title of the country’s official national anthem. The 50 stars on the American flags stand for the 50 American states and because of this symbolism, the starred blue canton is also called „union”. This part of the flags can stand alone and be used as maritime flags called Union Jacks.