"Regimental Colors: Infantry Guidons and Company Flags" Topic

I was rummaging through the NY State Military Museum website, looking at their collection of Civil War flags. I was actually trying to discover what happened to the Federal flags captured by the Confederates. Included in the museum's collection are swallow-tail guidons for infantry regiments that were originally mustered in as infantry, company colors, guide flags and flank markers. I assumed that the guide flags served a purpose similar to flank markers, however, some regiments apparently had both guide flags and flank markers.

Does anyone know if company colors were carried on the field or were they limited to camp? Are guide flags and flank markers used for the same thing? What are infantry regiments doing with swallow-tail guidons? I could see if an infantry regiment had originally been raised as artillery or cavalry – there is one example of a regiment raised as artillery but transformed into an infantry regiment retaining its guidon. The other guidons match up with regiments that were raised as infantry.

I looked at online records for a couple of Northern states and did not run across any "non-standard" flags in their collections. (NY appears to have the easiest website for searching flags. Who would ever believe that NY has done anything right since building the Erie Canal?) I searched whether the Confederates used auxiliary flags and was surprised to learn that they did, on a state by state basis. I just assumed that the Confederates would have viewed such things as extravagances. I ran across one general officer's correspondence (general order?) in which he was Patton-esq in his desire for his command to properly use flank markers.

I may as well throw-out my original question, what happened to all of the Union colors that were captured during the war? I know that several were allegedly burned during the Richmond post-evacuation fire, however, there have to be more floating around. I know that a lot of the Confederate colors were returned. I read that some of the Southern states have refused to return trophies or have claimed that captured flags are "in private collections." Is there any definitive list of what colors were captured during the war and/or what then happened to those trophies?

Does anyone make auxiliary flags (flank markers) for the table? I would think that 25/28mm would be the smallest scale that could reasonably display such flags. From what I read, they were generally smaller than standard sized colors, some fitting on a small staff inserted in a musket barrel.

As always, thanks.

If you can find an image, on the Internet, you can massage it to size using Gimp, a free image editor program. I searched for some Dwarven fantasy flag images, edited them in Gimp, and then I printed them on regular paper, in color, using my color laser printer. I cut them out, I applied a glue stick to their backs, folded them around a pike (brass spear, very strong, very sharp tip!…), and when dried, I blackened the white edges with a black, acrylic paint pen, brush tipped. Note that I had not yet blackened the edges yet, in the linked photo. I also colored the white around the pole, using similarly colored paint pens. It is not terribly difficult to do, and the results are good enough for me. Cheers!

Thanks Sgt. That is helpful.

OP, the answer is complicated…

Guidons, company flags, and non-standard camp flags were often presented by, "the ladies of," "the friends of," etc. More early war than late, but known examples cover the whole war. A lot of infantry guidons and company colors went into baggage. I have read that Confederates would be more likely to carry company colors, but it was not universal.

A guide flag was a small flag on a stick that an NCO would put down the barrel of their musket. A flank marker is an actual flag on a 6 to 8 foot pole. Both sides issued flank markers. Personally, I think their use fell off as the war progressed and regimental strength was closer to 300 than 1,000.

I guess if it wasn't complicated, we would have less use for things such as TMP. That makes sense, thanks for the information.

79PA is right in my opinion IMO.
My research is in early war Confederate flags.
A lot varies by Corps or Army. The muster flags, ie none standard flags, we're indeed sewn by local families for the local boys from their county. Often several muster groups were merged to create a company. This was done at the training camp (we had Seven in Talladega about twenty miles from my location.). Or at the Regiment or Corps if sent to be replacements.
Each Corps commander, such as Polk, Hardee or Lee preferred different regimental flag designs.
So the muster flags were kept as camp flags and stored in wagons.
As stated, carrying flags by company varied. Fewer as the war went on since many companies could muster only 50 men or even fewer.
Any set procedures were rare in the south and varied by State. For example some may attribute the declining unit strength to the practice of mustering new regiments instead of providing replacements to old ones. That is only partially true. CSA regiments received replacements as did some State regiments in Alabama. The 30th and 31st received replacements based to their unit histories which I obtained from a county archive auction. Many of the replacements came from recovering soldiers. In fact one Lieutenant from an infantry unit resigned his rank to become a cavalry replacement as a private.
The later muster companies rarely received parting muster flags.
Company muster flags often had the nickname of the unit sewn on them. Again not universal. (My article in Time Portal Passages has all Alabama companies and their nickname with county of muster).
Battle Honors were mostly painted onto the flags by the units soldiers.

The National/Regimental colors, flank markers (guidons), and the 'markers' all had uses in the drill regulations. The colors and the flank markers (carried by sergeants called the Right and Left General Guides) were necessary to keep the alignment while moving in Line of Battle. On the command "forward" there would be a slight pause while the front rank of the color guard and the two general guides moved 6 paces in front of the line. On the command "march" everyone goes forward together. The Colors and the flank markers defined the alignment and provided a visual reference for everyone else to keep the line straight. These were necessary even in smaller battalions. The markers had functions in the various formation changes. They were often used to define where the line would be established when deploying from column to line. There were a lot more uses for the guides and markers, but I don't want to copy the entire drill regulations here. I recommend taking a look at Hardee's or Casey's School of the battalion.