It's believed that the crimson saltire of the Flag of Alabama was designed to look like the blue saltire of the Confederate battle flag. The Battle Flag was square-shaped, and Alabama's flag is sometimes shown as a square. The authors of a 1917 article in National Geographic expressed their opinion that because the Alabama flag was based on the Battle Flag, it should be square. In 1987, Don Siegelman issued an opinion in which the Battle Flag derivation is repeated, but concluded that the proper shape is rectangular, as it had been depicted numerous times in official publications and reproductions.