Did the Confederate States of America ever officially adopt William T. Thompson's descriptions of the CSA national flag?
score:5
According to the answers to this essentially similar question on Skeptics:SE, it looks like the answer is no (although it seems Thompson did try to claim credit in his newspaper).
In fact, P. G. T. Beauregard, who would become the first prominent general of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, independently advocated an essentially similar design in a letter to Confederate Congressman C. J. VillerΓ© dated April 24 1863. Beauregard wrote simply:
"Why change our battle-flag, consecrated by the best blood of our country on so many battle-fields? A good design for the national flag would be the present battle-flag as union-jack, and the rest all-white, or all blue."
Edward D. Townsend, Anecdotes of the Civil War in the United States, p206.
Beauregard's role in the design of the battle-flag of the CSA is described in some detail in the 1872 book Our Flag. Origin and Progress of the Flag of the United States of America by George H. Preble. Given his prominence in that regard, it seems likely that his recommendation would have carried much greater weight than that of a newspaper editor from Savannah.
Preble also notes the wording that accompanies the recommendation for the Flag and Seal Committee to the Senate of the CSA:
The committee humbly think that the flag which they submit combines these requisites. It is very easy to make. It is entirely different from any national flag. The three colors of which it is composed, red, white and blue, are the true republican colors. In heraldry they are emblematic of the three great virtues of valor, purity and truth. Naval men assure us that it can be recognized at a great distance. The colors contrast admirably and are lasting. In effect and appearance it must speak for itself.
You'll notice that the supremacist interpretations that Thompson (and others) wished to attach to the colours of the flag are entirely absent from the Committee's recommendation.
The design agreed by committee was put before the Senate of the CSS on 1 May 1863. It's passage is recorded in the Journal of the Congress of the Confederate States of America, Volume 6, pp 275-280.
The bill establishing the flag was eventually approved in the following terms:
The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the flag of the Confederate States shall be as follows: the field to be white, the length double the width of the flag, with the union, (now used as the battle flag,) to be a square of two thirds the width of the flag, having the ground red; thereon a broad saltier of blue, bordered with white, and emblazoned with white mullets or five pointed stars, corresponding in number to that of the Confederate States.
As noted in the first answer to the question on Skeptics:SE, if you are looking for a comprehensive description of the evolution of the flag of the CSA, you may find the Illustrated Documentary history of the flag and seal of the Confederate States of America, 1861-1865, by Raphael P. Thian, to be of interest. As the answer to that question notes:
Numerous flag designs were considered before the flag as introduced by Hartridge was adopted. Some people gave extremely racist reasoning for their designs, with white representing the supremacy of the white race, while to others white represented, purity, innocence or peace.
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