Battle Flags  "Carrying The Regimental Colors"

Flags carried into battle were useful not only for identification purposes, but also as morale boosters for the men. The use of distinctive battle flags was not unique to the American Civil War. For centuries, British regiments had carried distinctive regimental flags. From the Was of 1812 through the Civil War, infantry regiments of the United States carried a blue battle flag emblazoned with the eagle and shield of the Union. Prior to the Civil War, with no apparent sanction, certain regiments painted on the regimental colors the names of the battles in which they had participated, as a display of battle "honors". This practice continued in both the Union and the Confederacy.

Regimental Colors were carried by the color sergeant and were protected by the color guard, a group of usually less than a dozen soldiers whose responsibility it was to ensure the emblem of regimental and state honor boldly led the way into battle, yet was not captured by the enemy. Each side in a battle naturally tried to shoot down the other's flag and the color guard bore a very dangerous honor. The 26th NC lost 14 standard bearers in the first day of battle at Gettysburg. For obvious reasons, mounted organizations- dragoons, mounted riflemen, and cavalry- carried much smaller flags those serving on foot. Not only would a 6'x6' flag have been impossible to carry on a horse at a canter, but compared with the infantry, the cavalry and artillery units had much less need to identify themselves on the battlefield.

Confederate battle flags were many and varied. Those units in the eastern theater, where the army tended to get more support from the government, were fairly uniform, while the remote armies in the western theater and the Trans-Mississippi had greater diversity in styles and patters of flags.

Fascinating Fact:  During the Battle of Fredricksburg, the colorbearer of the 21st Mass. Infantry Regiment was shot. Sgt. Thomas Plunkett of Company E seized the flag and carried it until a shell tore off one of his arms and part of the other; his blood stained the flag as he fell. The flag was allowed out of the Massachusetts State House for Plunkett's funeral in 1885.


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