Rally 'Round the Flag

This is the second in a series of articles that explores the Union stories of selected artifacts.

By Catherine M. Wright

The Museum is well known for having the largest assemblage of Confederate flags anywhere in the world. Few people, however, know that the collection also contains about a dozen United States flags.

The stories of how they came into the Museum’s collection are almost as interesting as the flags themselves. Confederate forces captured some of them and kept them as souvenirs or war trophies. A few remained in the hands of U.S. soldiers or their descendants who donated them to the Museum.

And, in an unusual twist, some were captured by Confederates then recaptured by U.S. soldiers – who may or may not have recognized them for what they were – and turned them in to the U.S. War Department, which kept and cataloged captured Confederate flags.

The Museum has conserved some of these flags and plans on displaying them in its new flagship exhibition, “A People’s Contest: Struggles for Nation and Freedom in Civil War America,” opening in the spring of 2019.

This is the second in a series of articles that explores the Union stories of selected artifacts. This installment examines a variety of U.S. military flags, representing a variety of styles and functions.

National Color

Each infantry regiment of the U.S. Army received two flags: a National Color, shown on the left, and a Regimental Color. The 1st Maryland Infantry (U.S.) was issued this large (six feet long) silk flag, probably soon after it mustered into service in May 1861. Painted in gold on the center stripe is the unit designation “1ST REGT MARY- LAND VOLUNTEERS.” Only 24 of the original 34 painted gold stars remain on the canton.

The 1st Maryland Infantry (C.S.), commanded by Col. Bradley T. Johnson, captured this flag at the Battle of Front Royal, Virginia, on May 24, 1862. It is a souvenir of the only battle of the War in which two opposing regiments from the same state with the same numerical designation fought one another. Johnson apparently kept the flag as a war trophy and presented it to the Confederate Museum in 1902.

Regimental Color

An example of a U.S. Regimental Color flag

ACWM

An example of a U.S. Regimental Color, this flag is made of blue silk and yellow fringe and features an oil-painted U.S. Coat of Arms on both sides. The red ribbon beneath the eagle typically bore a painted regimental designation, but that was never applied to this flag.

This flag was issued to the 29th Missouri Infantry (U.S.), which was organized in St. Louis in 1861. The regiment became part of the XV Corps, Army of the Tennessee. On November 27, 1863, at the Battle of Ringgold Gap in Georgia, the 29th Missouri launched an ill-fated charge against Texans under the command of Col. Hiram Granbury, which resulted in the loss of this flag and about 100 prisoners.

Pamplin Historical Park and the National Museum of the Civil War Soldier sponsored this flag’s conservation in 1999.

Cavalry Guidon, 1861-1862

Cavalry Guidon, 1861-62

ACWM

U.S. Cavalry units carried guidons (flag with a double-pointed fly end), which, between 1834 and 1862, featured red-over-white design like this one. This cotton guidon also bears blue satin spear and star appliqués, the symbolism of which is not clear.

The guidon might have belonged to a unit in Brig. Gen. Hugh Judson Kilpatrick’s brigade of the Army of the Potomac Cavalry Corps and was captured sometime during the War. U.S. soldiers found it in Richmond, Virginia, in 1865 and turned in to the U.S. War Department (which was standard practice for captured Confederate flags).

Cavalry Guidon, from 1862

Cavalry Guidon (1862)

ACWM

U.S. Cavalry units carried guidons like this one, featuring 33 of its original 34 stars, after January 1862.They were typically made of silk, and regulations indicated that they look like the U.S. national flag with gold-painted stars. The regulations specified the guidon’s dimensions as 27 inches high by 41 inches long, but this example is missing the tip of its uppermost stripe and most of the bottom stripe and measures just 36.5 inches long. Based on the regular manner in which the missing portions of the guidon have been removed, including the star from the upper left corner, it is believed these areas were taken as souvenirs.

This guidon was found in 1865 on the grounds of the White House plantation in New Kent County, Virginia, in March 1865, and might have belonged to troops under Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan, who passed through New Kent on their way to rejoin the Army of the Potomac at Petersburg. The War Department transferred this guidon and other unidentified flags to the Museum in 1906.

National Flag

This wool bunting 34-star U.S. national flag is very large, measuring over 9 feet high by nearly 13 feet long. Women in Maine made this flag early in the War and presented it to Col. George F. Shepley, 12th Maine Infantry. After U.S. forces captured New Orleans, Louisiana, in April 1862, Shepley was appointed acting military mayor of the city on May 20 and raised this flag above the city.

U.S. National flag

Three years later, after U.S. troops captured Richmond, Shepley (now a brigadier general) was the first military governor of the Confederate capital and once again flew this flag. It might have been the first U.S. flag to fly above Richmond when it was no longer the capital of the Confederacy. It could be the flag seen flying above the Virginia Capitol Building in a photograph of the city taken shortly after its capture.

Custer’s Flag?

Could this be Custer's flag?

ACWM

Maj. John V. Allstrom of the 3rd New Jersey Cavalry captured this flag at the Battle of Sailor’s Creek on April 6, 1865. The flag he captured was apparently a U.S. flag that Confederate forces captured earlier in the War.

This flag of wool bunting features a red upper half and blue lower half with appliquéd crossed sabres. It was probably a swallowtail guidon shape but is missing the pointed ends. It does not conform to any pattern known to have been used in the Confederate Army or in the U.S. Army in the eastern theatre, with one notable exception: Brig. Gen. George Armstrong Custer began using a flag of this pattern as his personal headquarters flag after the Gettysburg Campaign.

Custer, however, did not report any flags captured during the War, and four of his personal flags are documented in other collections. The identity of this flag remains a mystery. Because the flag’s state of origin was unknown, the U.S. War Department donated it to the Confederate Museum in 1906.

Signal Corps

The U.S. Signal Corps was established in 1860 to facilitate military communications using flags, torches, or telegraph. The “wig-wag” signal system used a set of flags issued in various combinations of black and white fabrics (or red if Signal Corps flag used at sea), all of them featuring a small square of fabric in the center of a larger square of fabric in a contrasting color.

Signal Corps flag

ACWM

This flag is a variant signal flag that Confederate troops apparently captured and which Detective C. H. March, U.S.A. subsequently recaptured near North Mountain, Maryland, on August 1, 1864. The U.S. War Department described it as a “Black Flag” (meaning “no quarter”), but subsequent research indicates its appearance is a battle honor conferred upon a specific U.S. signaler.

During the Battle of Kernstown on March 23, 1862, 1st Lt. David A. Taylor helped operate a signal station and later joined a U.S. advance. For serving with distinction, Taylor was entitled to place upon his service flags a star with the name of the battle in which it was earned on the star’s uppermost point.

This was also among the unidentified regimental flags that the U.S. War Department sent to the Museum in 1906.

Catherine Wright is a curator in the Museum’s Collections Department and a specialist in the flag collections.