What does a Confederate battle flag over I-95 say about Stafford County?

A Confederate battle flag stands tall over Interstate 95 in south Stafford County.

Seen by drivers traveling along the East Coast, it was placed there by “The Virginia Flaggers,” a group that remains proud of its southern heritage.

 The group filed for the permit to fly the flag at a home on Beagle Road, on a property owned by one of the group’s members.

‘Flaggers’ say heritage, not hate

According to group spokesman Barry Isenhour, the group places Confederate flags in locations around the state as a response to people looking to remove the flags.

“The reason we put that [flag] up was to commemorate the Confederate soldiers who actually fought and died in that area, defending the state of Virginia,” Isenhour said.

Throughout the Confederacy between 1861 to 1865, more than three iterations of the flag were used for several different reasons.

The flag placed alongside I-95 was specifically used when Confederate soldiers stepped into battle, known as the battle flag.

The Virginia Flaggers formed 3-years ago, and they pay for all of the flags and flag poles using donations.

“What we’ve seen [are] negative positions on our Confederate ancestors who fought bravely for the state…and they started taking flags off of the Confederate War Memorial Chapel in Richmond. [And our group] said ‘enough is enough’ – these are ancestors of ours, they were honorable men, honorable veterans and there’s no need to start rewriting history in the modern eyes,” commented Isenhour.

Response to the flag

Isenhour stated that they had gotten a lot of feedback for the work that the group is doing.

“We get a tremendous amount of responses from all over the state and the country. People who will give donations to the flag project…we’re seeing a lot of rallying points.”

Additionally, Isenhour said that the group has not gotten any negative feedback about the flag flying in Stafford. 

“If you look at the flag…and it offends you so much, then I think you probably need to go get a life somewhere,” Isenhour said. 

Stafford County officials back up that claim and said no formal complaints are on file about the Confederate flag that flies over the highway. However, Stafford County Public Information Officer Shannon Howell said that several resident had made phone calls and had conversations with county staff about their thoughts on the flag. 

Confederate Flag inside Stafford government center

A Confederate flag also hangs inside the George L. Gordon, Jr. Stafford County Government  Center. It was donated by an American Legion post in 1992 and hung on a wall at the request of then Stafford Clerk of the Court Tom Moncure. 

The Confederate Flag during the Civil War, and once again during civil rights movement 100 years later, was seen as a divisive symbol. To many, it still is.

Prince William Democratic Committee African American Caucus Chairman Albert Brooks, and a civil rights era investigator for the U.S. Department of Transportation, expressed his upset with the Confederate flag hanging adjacent to I-95.

“I don’t believe in the heritage of slavery or dominance of one race above another, and that’s what that flag symbolizes in this country. I cannot tell a person how to think, however most people with common sense would disagree with this…this flag and those who are putting it out there – whether or not they believe that it’s okay to treat people differently – that’s not what America should be about. Equality is for everybody…and that flag symbolizes nothing but contempt for [equality], which does not help us as a nation,” Brooks said.

Stafford’s history more than just Civil War

Stafford Historical Society member Alaric MacGregor agrees that the flag does have negative meaning for many people, but stated that the flag is just a part of Stafford’s history in the South when it was part of the Confederacy.

“As far as Stafford County is concerned, it was a part of the confederacy…the particular flag they’re flying is the Confederate battle flag… But they certainly were a part of not just Stafford’s history – but the south,” MacGregor said.

But there is more to Stafford’s story than the Civil War.

“We had so much colonial history and industrial history that we focus on, and the war was only four years out of three hundred or some years of history,” MacGregor said.