"Infantry company guidons?" Topic

Did the US Infantry carry Guidons during the Plains Wars and what form would they have been?

I don't know that US infantry ever carried guidons – cavalry and HQ, yes but I don't believe that they were used by infantry units

Correct. No infantry company guidons. In the Civil War, artillery batteries also had guidons, but don't recall ever seeing any during Indian Wars. When on field duty during Indian Wars, the (light) artillery batteries almost always served as infantry so it would make sense that they would not be carrying their artillery battery guidon.

Plains War infantry companies were so small (c.20 ar) that carrying guidons would have been a serious waste of manpower.

Although I know that Col. Gibbon's 7th infantry companies at the Big Hole battle were seriously understrength (about 27 per company if I recall correctly), that was a short-term situation arising from LBH where the army was authorized to bring cavalry companies on the northern plains (2,3,4,5 and 7th) up to 100 men per, at the expense of the infantry strengths; prior to that, infantry company strength in the field was around 40-45 per company. I expect that not too long after the "emergency" of LBH, cavalry companies were allowed to return to their 55-70 pre-LBH strengths while infantry companies gradually were built back up to their pre-LBH strengths (of 40-45).