Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Bonnie Blue Flag was written by entertainer Harry McCarthy, who premiered it during a concert in Jackson, Mississippi, in the spring of 1861. He performed it again in September of that same year at the New Orleans Academy of Music for the First Texas Volunteer Infantry regiment.
The melody of The Bonnie Blue Flag was taken from an existing Irish song called The Irish Jaunting Car. Harry McCarthy wrote new Confederate lyrics to fit that tune.
Major General Benjamin Butler allegedly banned the song after capturing New Orleans, having publisher A. E. Blackmar arrested and fined five hundred dollars, ordering all copies destroyed, and imposing a twenty-five-dollar fine on anyone caught whistling or singing it.
The New Orleans music publishing house of A. E. Blackmar issued six editions of The Bonnie Blue Flag between 1861 and 1864, along with three additional arrangements. Eleven other editions with different lyrics were also published.
No. The third verse rearranges the secession order for meter. Alabama is placed second, after South Carolina, but in reality Mississippi seceded on the 9th of January, 1861, and Florida on the 10th before Alabama departed on the 11th of January.
At least three Union adaptations circulated. J. L. Geddes, a British-born colonel, wrote The Bonnie Flag With the Stripes and Stars in 1863. Mrs. C. Sterett wrote a second version published by S. T. Gordon of 538 Broadway Street in New York. The same tune also served as the anthem of the 69th New York regiment of the Irish Brigade.