"Did each Battalion have more than one standard?" Topic

Did the Americans have the National Flag and a State flag? How about the British did they carry the Union Jack and their Regiments Colors?

Starting to base my units. Did Militia carry a Standard as well?

Thanks in advance.

American regulars carried a national flag and a blue regimental flag with the arms of the United States on it, similar to American Civil War regimental flags. Google American infantry colors War of 1812.

Well the subject is more complicated than I thought. Disregard the previous message from me and check out this site: link

The British foot battalions carried both the King's colors and the regimental colors just like they did in Europe fighting the French.

Jim

It was usual for units to carry two standards: If you are a soldier in the front rank and you look down the line and see two flags you are out of position!

William Warner's link matches with my understanding for US regular infantry. There's a buff flag with a horse's head currently owned by the Lee Museum which I suspect belonged to the US Light Dragoons, but that's a hunch, and not how it's labelled.

You'd think by analogy of militia units carrying a state and a regimental color, but a lot of states had no state flag at this date, and our knowledge of militia standards is spotty at best. I think we can assume at least one standard per militia infantry regiment, other than rifles, but what you use for such will mostly be guesswork.

Thanks for the input! Much appreciated.

The following are general guidelines as discerned mainly from;
"A Most War like Appearance: American Uniforms War of 1812" and "A Scarlet Coat: Uniforms, Flags and Equipment of the British in the War of 1812", both are outstanding references by Rene Chartrand, plus many other sources.

As previously implied British regular battalions in N.A. carried a King's Colour (Union jack) with regimental scrolls and battle honours and a Regimental Colour with a large wreath and regimental scrolls and battle honours on scrolls with a background colour in the facings of the regiment. Some regimental colours had their badge superimposed on the middle of the flag.

Canadian militia, including fencibles followed the British pattern as much as possible. However, in some cases definitive information on some militia regiments is sketchy or not available.

American regulars carried a national flag (not the stars and bars) 15 golden stars in two rows along the top, a large golden American eagle with shield clutching arrows in the middle and variations of flowing scrolls bearing the name/number of regiment and located along the bottom all superimposed on a dark blue background.

The regimental flag was yellow with a large scroll across the middle of the flag bearing the spelled out in full e/g/ The Second Regiment Of Infantry. Both the national and regimental flags were fixed to wooden poles with metal spearpoints with draping silver ropes ending in tassels.

American militia flags were varied as others have indicated.
Generally speaking they carried the state flag (in place of the national flag) that was usually a variation of the State's coat of arms normally on a blue background. For regimental flags I can find no uniform standard. The only common feature were scrolls with the regiments' title and sometimes a motto. I have found some specific flags for some specific regiments.

For my Louisiana militia, they are carrying a pelican flag, and my Kentucky militia have a "Remember the Raisin" flag. My New York militia have the state flag.

My US army troops carry the two flags, the blue eagle flag and "buff" flag. The buff is in several different shades.

US regimental standard is variously reported as white, buff and yellow. I suspect all were true.

Not the Stars and Stripes, Ironduke. Not the Stars and Bars is quite different.

My Louisiana Free Men of Color will also carry the Pelican, Vincent, but there seems to be some dispute about whether it dates that far back. And my Fifth Maryland will carry a Maryland State Flag--but not the one we're used to, which seems to be post-Civil War. My castings, my table, my flags.

Out of curiosity what were the Kentucky militia carrying before the Raisin?