Giant Confederate Flag Raised Along Va. Highway

Some 150 years after the last major Confederate victory of the Civil War, a huge Confederate battle flag has gone up beside a highway just outside Richmond, Va. The Virginia Flaggers heritage group hoisted the 15-foot banner at a weekend rally a few miles north of the former Confederate capital attended by around 200 people, many of them carrying their own rebel flags, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

"Richmond needed a reminder of her Confederate heritage," a Flaggers spokeswoman says. The flag is on a 50-foot pole on a plot of land bought by the group—but it is hard to see from Interstate 95 because of trees in the way. The Flaggers, who say the banner is intended to honor the Confederate war dead, not glorify slavery, have been at the center of a huge public debate over use of the flag. As the Confederate flag went up over the weekend, an opposed group called UnitedRVA raised a huge American flag in downtown Richmond. (More Confederate flag stories.)