David,
re. Confederate flag
There are five flags that have a claim to being 'the' Confederate flag. However, only three of them were ever official national flags:
1. The Stars and Bars: Three horizontal stripes or bars: red, white, red. The staff side of the flag is a blue field from top to bottom, with a circular pattern of stars, one for each seceding state. This is the Stars and Bars, and the flag you are referring to as difficult to distinguish from the US flag, on the battlefield.
2. The Stainless Banner: A white flag, with a red field in the staffside upper quarter, blue st andrews cross in the field with the stars on the cross, ie... a white flag with the popular notion of the 'confederate flag' in the corner. This is the flag I mentioned above was very ill suited to use on the battlefied because it was often confused for a flag of surrender, being mostly white.
3. The last flag was adopted near the end of the war in 1865, I can't remember it's name right now. It was the Stainless Banner, only with the 1/5th of the flag away from the staff being coloured red. It's an odd looking flag.
Those three flags are the only three flags that can properly be called the Confederate Flag. The other two flags, improperly called Confederate Flags are the Naval Jack and the Battle Standard... both adopted, I think, in 1862, partly due to the inadequacies of the Stainless Banner for use in war.
The Battle Standard is a square flag, red background, blue St Andrew's Cross being stars, all with a white border. Occasionally with a gold border.
The Naval Jack is a normally proportioned flag (ie. 1.5 to 1 length to height) red, blue St Andrews cross bearing stars.
Neither the Battle Standard nor the Naval Jack were ever adopted as national flags, and as such are only flags of their respective branches of the armed services.
[hr]I sing of arms, and the man...