The reason for the St. Andrew's cross should be obvious---the Confederacy had to have some pattern after which to design their battle flag.
Actually, my family heralds back at least to the days of William Wallace and Robert the Bruce.
While Mel Gibson's "Braveheart" didn't portray R the B in a very flattering way (until you read the credits---which OF COURSE EVERYBODY DOES!!), but it was old Bobby the B who finished the work that Willy started in the early 1300's.
Bobby wasn't the only claimant for the Scottish throne.
An aide from another rival sought R the B's presence to deliver a "message" from this rival, was intercepted and seriously wounded, but still managed to crawl up to the altar of a nearby chapel. (These areas were supposed to be kill-free zones back in those days.)
Bobby turned to one of HIS aides and posed the question: "I wonder if the messenger is dead?"
Aide Roger Kirkpatrick gave a simple reply:
"IMAK SIKKER" = "I'll make sure."
Hence the bloody dagger and those two words on my family's coat of arms.
Who needs soap operas when you've got 14th - 16th century Scottish history?
And, thanks to your US Federal tax dollars, I flew over the ancestral home of my family on the evening of my birthday back in May of 2003, and spent that night only about 75 miles away from it.
Unfortunately, I was a bit on the tired side when I checked into my room.
The First Class section on a C-130H of the 118th Airlift Wing, Nashville, TN, is kinda small, and, early the next day we were headed to Iceland anyway.