Vexillology: Flags of Texas

Time to talk about something a little closer to home.

While Texas may have one of America's most iconic flags (it was ranked as the 2nd best flag behind New Mexico in a 2001 ranking of all of the flags of the 72 US States and Canadian Provinces), not too many people outside of the Great State know its history.

Today, I'm going to dig into the history of the flag of my home state. Let's start at the beginning and go chronologically. I'll be ignoring the "Six Flags" that flew over Texas, since they are for the most part flags of separate intependent countries (France, Spain, Mexico, etc) rather than uniquely Texan flags. Our first flag, therefore, will be the famous Gonzales Flag.

Let's go!

Come and Take It (Gonzales)

The first flag that represented a truly Texan identity was the famous Gonzales Flag, better known as the "come and take it" flag. As the Texas War of Independence was just starting, this was the first flag to unify the Texas rebels against the Mexican government. 

The Battle of Gonzales was the first skirmish in the Texas Revolution. Texas rebels refused the Mexican governor's orders to return a small bronze cannon, and as a symbol of defiance fashioned this iconic flag from a woman's wedding dress.

The Alamo Flag

An Alamo Flag hangs inside the Student Union Building at Baylor University. The bullet holes in the flag purport it to be the original Alamo flag, although it's not absolutely certain whether the Alamo Flag at the oldest university in Texas is indeed the original Alamo Flag or not.

The Alamo Flag was a hastilly-made banner thrown together to fly over the ragtag Texas army. It consists of a simple Mexican flag with the year 1824 printed in the middle in black. This is the year that the Mexican Constitution was adopted, and the rebels used it as their symbol to say that Mexico had abandoned its constitution and thus had abandoned the Texans.

This wasn't the only Mexican flag to fly over Texas, of course.

Left: the flag of the First Mexican Republic

Right: the state flag of Coahuila y Tejas, a Mexican state that encompassed what would become Texas 

      

The Zavala Flag

When the nascent Republic of Texas was drafting up flag designs to fly proudly above the new country, one of the earliest and most popular flag designs was the Zavala Flag. The following design may or may not have ever been produced as a physical flag, but this is the design chartered in notes from the original constitutional convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos.

The Zavala flag was ultimately replaced with a simplified version that kept just the lone star, a design which would eventually evolve into the Texas flag of today.

Left: The speculative design of the flag of the Republic of Texas

Right: The purported first flag of the Republic of Texas based on the Zavala Flag

        

The Burnet Flag

The first official flag of the Republic of Texas was the Burnet Flag, which utilized the simplified Zavalda flag design. The word "TEXAS" was removed, and the star was changed from white to gold to stand out more boldly. The Burnet Flag was the official flag of the republic from 1836 until it was replaced by the Lone Star Flag in 1839.

The Lone Star Flag

And that finally brings us to the iconic Lone Star Flag. Along with that of Hawaii, it's the only flag to have ever flown over an independent country as well as a US state.

The flag was adopted in 1839 as the final official flag of the Republic of Texas, and was later adopted as the official flag of the State of Texas upon its entry into the Union. The flag is based on the flag of the USA. According to the Texas Flag Code, each color of the flag has a special meaning. Blue stands for loyalty, white for purity, and red for bravery. Furthermore, the single star represents Texas unity.

It's a great flag, and extrememly popular throughout the state!

I'm not sure if any other state flags have a history as long, complicated, or interesting as that of the flag of Texas, but I'll do some digging and see what I can learn. I'll keep working on this series from time to time as long as we are still stuck home during the lockdown!