A question about Regimental Battle flags

[Harms88]

I've been reading the book Perryville: This Grand Havoc of Battle in preparation for visiting Perryville prior to Shiloh Muster and in the book, it shows the battle flag of I believe the 102nd Ohio. The author points out in the caption that the regiment does not put "Perryville" as their battle honor, but "Chapin Hill" a misspelling of the actual location "Chaplin Hill" as their battle honor, naming the exact location on the field they fought at instead of the entire battle itself.

Was this pretty common? Most regimental flags I've seen names the battle and not the spot they fought at, such as regiments that fought at Murfreesboro or Chancellorsville placed those names and not say "Hazel Grove" or "Dunkard Church" as their battle legend.

It also led me to wonder, if a regiment was at a battle but did not actually fight, say like the 20th Maine being held in reserve at Antietam, the majority of the VI Corps at Gettysburg, or Thomas's III Corps at Perryville, did they add the battle to their flags? Or did they only add the battles that not only were they there, but they also got some fighting in?

 

[rpkennedy]

There was no real rule on this but generally, a regiment would only honor the battles in which they were engaged. For example, the 121st New York (prior to the Overland Campaign when they received new colors) had the engagements of Salem Church May 3-4, 1863 and Rappahannock Station November 7, 1863 on their national flag. Now, that said, there were units that didn't put anything on their flags so it seems to have been a unit by unit choice.

Ryan

 

[DixieRifles]

May I insert a related question here??

I've listened to talks about Confederate flags and how they were marked with campaigns. I had always assumed that some QM type in the regiment would sit down by the fire and sew the name of a recent battle on their flag. This was not done. Instead at various times the regiment was issued a replacement flag. Sometimes it was an improved flag or a flag of a different design, such as changing from the Bragg AOT Flag to the standard regimental flag.

What did the Union regiments do? The above answer says each regiment decided what to add or even if they did add battles. My question is When and How did they add these campaigns? Were they issued new flags? Or did they find a seamstress to modify the flag?

 

[rpkennedy]

May I insert a related question here??

I've listened to talks about Confederate flags and how they were marked with campaigns. I had always assumed that some QM type in the regiment would sit down by the fire and sew the name of a recent battle on their flag. This was not done. Instead at various times the regiment was issued a replacement flag. Sometimes it was an improved flag or a flag of a different design, such as changing from the Bragg AOT Flag to the standard regimental flag.

What did the Union regiments do? The above answer says each regiment decided what to add or even if they did add battles. My question is When and How did they add these campaigns? Were they issued new flags? Or did they find a seamstress to modify the flag?

I've seen some that were embroidered and some that were painted. In my experience with New York regiments, the flags were retired pretty quickly in units in the Army of the Potomac. A number of regiments sent their flags home in the late fall-early winter of 1862 after a year of hard campaigning. In fact, IIRC, the New York Irish Brigade regiments had sent their green brigade flags home in early December and so were not carrying them at Fredericksburg, despite the famous image of the men advancing under the Irish banners.

Ryan

 

[DixieRifles]

The first Confederates flags were sometimes made by local ladies for the company recruited from their town. These could be ornate silk material, embroidered and even painted scenes. These usually didn't last a full year according to what I've been told.

 

[rpkennedy]

The first Confederates flags were sometimes made by local ladies for the company recruited from their town. These could be ornate silk material, embroidered and even painted scenes. These usually didn't last a full year according to what I've been told.

I've found a few that were actually two sheets of silk with a cotton lining to hold it together. Those lasted slightly longer but most of the flags were shot to shreds after a couple battles and were simply unable to be mended. I recall a sketch made of men from the 24th Michigan marching along with their flag after Gettysburg and it was all but shreds of fabric attached to the pole. I can imagine a number of units had to retire their colors after battles like Antietam or Gettysburg.

Ryan

 

[19thOhio]

The three-year 19th Ohio had two United States Flags with battles painted on it. The second flag with which the regiment received in Louisville, KY, on Feb. 1, 1864 on their way home to northeast Ohio for furlough and reenlistment was presented by "ladies of the town (Louisville)" and described as "a splendid silk flag on which was inscribed the names of the battles in which it had fought."

A painting of that flag, which resides at the Ohio History Connection, shows the flag with 15 battles experienced by the 19th Ohio, ranging from Rich Mountain to Nashville. This flag includes two battles in which the regiment was not directly involved in the engagement of the battles. They include Perrysville, in which the regiment was south of the actual battle site with Crittenden's out-of-position II Corps and the Battle of Franklin. At Franklin the 19th Ohio, one of the last regiments to march into Franklin, was sent to guard the north entrances to the town and thus observed the carnage from the view of Fort Granger. Upon evacuating Franklin, the regiment set fire to the bridge over the Harpeth River.

(This brings up a mystery involving the first flag that I will post inanother thread.)

 

[Harms88]

The three-year 19th Ohio had two United States Flags with battles painted on it. The second flag with which the regiment received in Louisville, KY, on Feb. 1, 1864 on their way home to northeast Ohio for furlough and reenlistment was presented by "ladies of the town (Louisville)" and described as "a splendid silk flag on which was inscribed the names of the battles in which it had fought."

A painting of that flag, which resides at the Ohio History Connection, shows the flag with 15 battles experienced by the 19th Ohio, ranging from Rich Mountain to Nashville. This flag includes two battles in which the regiment was not directly involved in the engagement of the battles. They include Perrysville, in which the regiment was south of the actual battle site with Crittenden's out-of-position II Corps and the Battle of Franklin. At Franklin the 19th Ohio, one of the last regiments to march into Franklin, was sent to guard the north entrances to the town and thus observed the carnage from the view of Fort Granger. Upon evacuating Franklin, the regiment set fire to the bridge over the Harpeth River.

(This brings up a mystery involving the first flag that I will post inanother thread.)

As soon as you said "Crittenden's II Corps", I remembered that Thomas actually didn't command III Corps, he was second-in-command but hung out with II Corps, so I wasn't even correct which Corps he hung out with. If I had to guess why my confusion happened was because Thomas and Buell very rarely seemed to even be within shouting distance of each other as they both held immense disdain for each other.

Which is sad considering I was reading all about that battle (finished the book last night). lol

But as for the 19th Ohio, I think it's a case of bragging rights that they added Franklin and Perryville to their flag. They were there but since they weren't in the thick of it, they claim the glory without needing the legwork. Similar to how my job has "health insurance" that isn't actually insurance (it provides really no coverage for anything and can't even be brought up in most medical systems) but because you can say "Yeah, I have insurance", you don't have to pay the massive fine for not having it.

 

[rpkennedy]

I've found kind of a unique state flag. The state color for the 16th New York Infantry was actually created from 13 individual strips of blue silk that were sewn together. The state arms were painted onto the fabric and each side is a mirror image of the other.

And here is the 106th New York's state colors, given to them on January 1, 1865 and was supposedly the first flag planted on the works at Petersburg on April 1.

Ryan