World's 2nd Largest Confederate Flag

Brandon, Florida

A giant Confederate Battle Flag is the centerpiece of a Confederate veterans memorial, erected in 2008 by Marion Lambert as a spit-in-the-eye to county commissioners who refused to acknowledge a celebration of "Southern Heritage Month."

The flag is 50x30 feet, on a pole tall enough that the provocative symbol can be seen miles away on the interstate and from surrounding communities. The Sons of Confederate Veterans insist it honors the courage of rebel soldiers who fought in the Civil War, but most others who see it have a different association....

We spotted big battle flag twice on different days, from I-75 and I-4. Venturing to its base, we half-expected some kind of private, walled compound, but it is in an accessible roadside spot with convenient parking spaces.

A sign identifies it as "General Jubal A. Early Camp 556." A small plaza is centered around a granite monument in front of the flag pole. It reads, in part, that the site is dedicated to the Confederate forces who "fought, bled and died in defense of their homeland against ruthless invasion and who strove to protect America's birthright of Constitutional liberty & freedom dating from 1776."

The Sons of Confederate Veterans had plans to place another four giant Confederate flags around the state for their "Flags Across Florida" initiative (ten years later, in 2020, this seems even more ludicrous and unlikely).

For nine years Lambert proudly identified his flag as the World's Largest. It fell to second place in 2017, when a flag in Virginia was raised that was designed to be slightly larger: 51x31 feet.

Private ownership of the Brandon spectacle has stymied efforts to permanently lower what most now consider abhorrent, and one local characterized to us as "not a jaunty fun place to take the family, but a monument to hate."