During the Reconstruction

General Horace Porter described the scene of the surrender of the Confederate Army: "We entered, and found General Grant sitting at a marble-topped table in the center of the room, and Lee sitting beside a small oval table near the front window, in the corner opposite to the door by which we entered, and facing General Grant. We walked in softly and ranged ourselves quietly about the sides of the room, very much as people enter a sick-chamber when they expect to find the patient dangerously ill”. [1]

When the soldiers learnt the news about the surrender days after the Meeting at Appomattox , they “did rush to catch their fallen flags and did destroy their flags rather than surrender them”[2].
This behavior romanticized the view of the flag during the Reconstruction Era. Of course, every symbol of the former Southern Army was against the law, they symbolized disunity and rebellion. However, in the South, veterans and their families took care of their relics, and many times, the Confederate banner was displayed in public. There were several incidents during the late 1860’s which led to debates within the Southern states and the US government. Flying the Confederate flag was an “act of treason”.

On the other hand, we should not forget that the KKK was founded during these years too. They used the Confederate flag and other symbols to represent their racist views on African Americans, immigration, etc. In the beginning of the 1870’s, the government passed the so called Force Acts to prosecute KKK members, but later in the 20^th century, the Klan was reborn. The restoration of white supremacy was their main goal by torturing and killing innocents. By the virtue of the fact, that the Confederate flag was displayed many time, therefore became linked to the KKK; the memory, the symbol of the flag were distorted and degenerated. 

I believe these years influence the afterlife of the Confederate flag in the 20^th and 21^st centuries. How it became a symbol with different meanings over the centuries is strongly connected to the fact that during the Reconstruction it was treated with such ambiguity. Nowadays, I would say that the Confederate flag does not evoke such extreme feelings in people within the US and all over the world. It became a romantic symbol of the past, even if that period was among the darkest ones in their history.

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[1] http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/appomatx.htm
[2] http://books.google.hu/books?id=zs0VJTbNwfAC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false---pg29