Flags of the Missouri State Guard

Borderruffian

1st Lieutenant
Joined
Aug 4, 2007
Location
Marshfield Missouri
In mid-October, 1861, four months after the Guard had taken the field, a Mrs. S. A. Brett of Hernando, Mississippi presented a flag to the First Division of the Guard. Lieutenant Colonel Matthew H. Moore, the division quartermaster, then situated in Memphis, Tennessee seeking supplies, wrote Mrs. Brett a letter of appreciation, complimenting her painting of the state coat of arms as an example of the “finest style of the art”. The ladies of the St. Agnes Academy, presumably in Memphis, also presented Moore a “magnificent flag with the coat of arms of Missouri richly embroidered upon a field three feet square,” while the wife of Captain John Decker, a Guardsman from St. Louis living in Memphis, made several banners for the Division.[vi] Lastly, Moore acknowledged the “making of three banners” by C. E. W. Miller and Isadora Miller, both from the vicinity of Oxford, Mississippi. He provided no description of those flags, but since he had previously volunteered to furnish proper materials and instructions to anyone willing to make flags for the Division, it seems very likely that these flags probably reflected the design and color prescribed in General Order No. 8.[vii]


Oddly enough, there is evidence that the headquarters flag of Major General Sterling Price, overall commander of the Guard, did not comply with General Order No. 8. Once observed by Private Ephraim McD. Anderson, a Third Division soldier, he later penned the following description of the flag:


It is emblematic of our coat of arms, and exhibits a part of the blazonry, though the escutcheon, with the bear on each side, rampant and quadrant, in heraldic terms, is not represented, and perhaps would not be appropriate, yet the ascending star, upon the azure ground, is there, and something else, which is not distinctly visible.”[viii]


Expired Image Removed
Audrain County Company Flag, 2nd Division

Expired Image Removed
Company Flag of the Saline Guards, 6th Division

Expired Image Removed

Flag of 1st Infantry Battalion, 7th Division

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Callaway County (Kingdom of Callaway) Flag

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Sterling Price Flag

More here:http://mmcwrt.missouri.org/

http://www.rulen.com/moflag/
 
It's nice to see this thread. It was launched well before I joined the site. I am particularly interested in seeing the Kingdom of Callaway flag, which is totally new to me. The "Sterling Price Flag" is one of my favorite designs. It appears the links are broken for the images of the Audrain County flag, the Saline Guards and the 1st Infantry, 7th Division.
 
So the "Price Flag" is misnamed! Interesting! Well, it's even cooler if it was carried by the First Missouri.
 
This is another good link on flags of the MSG. The missing photos can be viewed there:
http://www.confederate-flags.org/Missouri State Guard.html
http://www.confederate-flags.org/Missouri State Guard Flag Bearer.html


The Sterling Price flag/Belle Edmonson Latin Cross was carried by the 1st Missouri Brigade and Green's Brigade in Bowen's Division as well as Mosby Parsons' Missouri Brigade in the Trans-Miss.
Thank you for the links. I don't quite understand the significance of the moose antlers coming out of the knight's helmet though.
 
So the "Price Flag" is misnamed! Interesting! Well, it's even cooler if it was carried by the First Missouri.
Well the original, sewn by Miss Belle Edmondson of Memphis, was presented to Gen. Price in fall of 1862. Price departed for the Trans-Miss. in February 1863 but his former Missouri troops in Bowen's Division were presented with a battle flags around the same time in winter of 1862-63. Mosby Parson's Missouri Brigade, later under Price's command west of the Mississippi, also received a batch of the flags in spring of that year.
 
Well the original, sewn by Miss Belle Edmondson of Memphis, was presented to Gen. Price in fall of 1862. Price departed for the Trans-Miss. in February 1863 but his former Missouri troops in Bowen's Division were presented with a battle flags around the same time in winter of 1862-63. Mosby Parson's Missouri Brigade, later under Price's command west of the Mississippi, also received a batch of the flags in spring of that year.
This is even better to know. Now I see that there is a genuine provenance to the name "Price's Flag", and now I know who carried it. This is very nice information. Thank you!
 
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