"Union Corps flags" Topic

My understanding is that the Corps flags and unit motifs were commenced in 1863 under Mr Hooker following suggestions by Mr Kearny.

However, I can not find anything that states what flags were used at Antietam for Corps HQ's in particular.

I am planning my re fight and any help would be much appreciated as I would like to get this right.

Thank you in anticipation.

Chris

Not sure if they were carried but they were certainly authorized – General Order No 102, March 24 1862 authorized Corps Flags as follows:

Corps Flags were to have a national flag with a small square flag, of a different color or set of colors, on the same staff as the national flag

I Corps – red, II Corps – blue, III Corps – red and blue in vertical halves, IV Corps blue and red in horizontal halves; on March 26 General Order 110 modified this for III Corps to have a square red and blue flag vertical with (i.e reversed red and blue) the the same change for IV Corps

The flags people tend to think about (I Corps sphere, II Corps trefoil, III Corps lozenge, IV Corps Maltese Cross etc.) were introduced later, in 1863

Hope this is helpful

Thanks Frederick.

Absolutely brilliant information.

Do you know wether they were flown above or below the national flag?

I am thinking below.

Best wishes

Chris

Dan Butterfield, Hooker's chief of staff, devised the corps emblems and flags of 1863. Kearny was dead by then. However, Kearny had previously adopted the red lozenge (diamond) as a distinctive badge for his men to wear, so he could tell his men from others. Since Kearny's division was in the 3rd Corps, Butterfield made the diamond the symbol for that corps when he devised his system.

C M, any flag flown on the same staff as the national flag would be flown below it.

Thank you again for such prompt and informed responses.

I am very grateful for the confirmation of the flag position as I want my re fight to be the best yet.

Chris

At Antietam they used the McClellan system which Frederick nicely laid out. As to their position regarding their relationship to the National. These weren't flags, but colors. They were attached to a staff. For the 135th Antietam re-enactment we had a complete set of these made and issued out (never got them back).

The McClellan system, as described above, only covered the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Corps (and the 3rd and 4th weren't at Antietam). What about the 5th, 6th, 9th and 12th? The latter two were recent additions to the AoP, but the other 2 had been with it for quite a while. (McClellan created them to make commands for a couple of his favorite subordinates, Porter and Franklin). Was there an expansion of the McClellan flag system to cover any of these?

I don't think so. Butterfield submitted a design for the Fifth Corps in Nov. 1862, but nothing changed until the orders in early 1863 created the corps symbols and flag system that lasted until the end of the war.

I can't find anything for the Fifth, Sixth, Ninth, or Twelfth Corps for 1862.

Thank you again to everyone for their wonderful help.

I am interested in what AICUSV states when he mentions ‘ colours'.

Am I correct in thinking that this was a flag flown under the National flag?

Or, were they on a separate pole and indeed what shape was the flag?

Sorry to be a pain, I know this is only going to apply to Hooker and Sumner's Corps so far but I would like to get it right.

It is strange that there seems to be no reference on this matter and the other Corps are a complete mystery.

Thank you again.

Chris