Our beloved Mississippi flag should remain unchanged – forever. In the spring of 1865, when the last guns of war fell silent across the fields, woods and farmlands of the South, the butcher’s bill was added up – the appalling numbers of which were incomprehensible to even the most learned people of the day.

Between 260,000 and 285,000 Southerners – mostly young men, many just boys, and more than a few grandfathers – had given their &uot;last full measure&uot; in what we refer to as the &uot;War for Southern Independence&uot; or the &uot;War of Northern Invasion.&uot;

Thousands of Mississippi soldiers laid down their arms, gave their paroles and began their journey home from Virginia, from North Carolina, from Alabama – wherever their last duty may have found them, including the hell-on-earth Yankee prison-of-war camps.

Most were starving, their clothes threadbare, and many were without shoes of any kind. For a majority of these men, it had been months – even years – since they had slept in a bed. Leftover scraps of food we give to our pets today, a Confederate soldier would have gladly turned over his monthly pay of $13 to buy and then would have shared it with his friends. But he came back home to Mississippi, on foot or horseback, by boat or by train, by whatever means he could find. There were no grand parades awaiting Johnny Reb like those given for the triumphant Union army in Washington, D.C. The Southern states had far more important issues facing their returning veterans.

No, when Johnny came home, barely recognizable to family and friends, he found only despair, desolation and destruction awaiting him. Mississippi had furnished 85,000 men and boys under arms to the Southern cause of independence, more than 15,000 of these valiant heroes would never come home again.

For many thousands of others who did, an empty coat sleeve or a pants leg became their Medal of Honor! Sadly, they would become the beneficiaries of the single largest item in the Mississippi state budget in the year following the war – artificial limbs for her native sons!

When these Confederate soldiers came home, their first priority was to rebuild their shattered lives – as best they could – and to rebuild their homes and farms and businesses and to feed their families. There were no disaster relief funds; there were no governmental programs; there were no pensions.

But survive he did, through his hard work and indomitable spirit he had never lost or surrendered.That same spirit lives within me now and within many thousands of other Mississippians.

The vast majority of these men would never attain earthly riches nor would they be accorded fame in the tawdry version of hero worship we have today. But, that’s not why they fought with such resolve and tenacity for four long years. And it certainly wasn’t to keep other people in bondage. Indeed, most would simply live out their lives in quiet but dignified obscurity. But they and their sacrifices would never be forgotten. Never, never!

When in 1894 the legislature authorized a new state flag for Mississippi, they remembered her sons who had stepped forth and followed the starry cross of St. Andrew.

This flag also honored those Native Americans and Hispanics and Jews and, yes, even those African-Americans who fought with valor and with honor and with courage and died under this same flag, a perpetual reminder to all who know the true story of our people. We just don’t buy into the Yankee’s version of this war – or their version of the reasons for it or reasons given by those politically correct race baiters among us today who would dare compromise our birthright. And, we never, ever will.

I’m a ninth-generation Mississippian and the proud great-great-grandson of seven men who honorably wore the gray, including three from this state. One of these men, who was from Yazoo City, lost his right arm. Another suffered what must have been indescribable agony as they cut away his leg, twice, all the way to the hip. Two more had not yet reached the age of 15 when they were sent off to battle Lincoln’s army.

Imagine sending your own 14- or 15-year-old son off to fight an enemy whose stated military policy was the total annihilation of Southerners, with the strong possibility you might never see him again.

I thank God every day for their loyal service and, if any of these men were able to speak today, I know what stand they would take with our flag!

A commission was formed by the one-term governor of Mississippi to study changing that flag, which has been our state banner for more than a century. Someone on the panel even came up with the brilliant idea of conducting a contest among our brainwashed school children to design a new flag!

No, the good and intelligent people of Mississippi will decide this issue – not those barely old enough to hold a driver’s license or those who sit on a commission or those who have PhDs after their names. The liberal media will not decide for us, nor will outside agitators.

We the people will decide. We will define what this flag represents – and what it does not. Those of us who vote, those of us who own businesses, those of us who work and pay the taxes, those of us who know the true history of our state and her people, we will decide.

But just like those returning veterans of 1865, we know there are far more important issues facing all Mississippians today than a piece of cloth. And, like those of us who conduct our lives in quiet obscurity with the same love and devotion to Mississippi as our ancestors, we say: Leave our flag alone!

Robert Crook is a Natchez native who lives and works in Baton Rouge.