Former Knoxville mayor William G. Swan, represented Tennessee’s second congressional district in the Confederate Congress in Richmond.

In 1863, he apparently had a hand in the adoption of the battle flag as a part of the Confederacy’s Second National Flag when he proposed the following language for the bill creating the new flag:

“That the flag of the Confederate States shall be as follows:
A red field with a Saint Andrew’s cross of blue edged with white and emblazoned with stars.”

“Because he believed that the battle flag had been sanctified by the blood of Southern soldiers in their struggle for independence, Swan wished to adopt it for use by the nation now as a tribute to the valor of the Confederate fighting man,” according to CivilWarWikiNet’s entry on the Confederacy’s multiple flags.