Henry Seale
40TH Ala. Flag/Captures at Vicksburg
Fri Jan 19 18:06:20 2001


O.K., I see your point. Well, does anyone have access to any Federal records that detail captured items at Vicksburg? I would imagine that battle flags would be listed with the ordanance supplies. Surely there were inventories made and most all Federal records unlike Confederate records survived the war.

I would also like to mention that at the Battle of Bentonville, North Carolina (last engagement of the regiment) Lt.Col. Gulley and a number of men were cut off from the main body of the regiment/brigade and were behind enemy lines for several days. They had with them the regiment's flag. They were afraid of being captured and the color bearer removed the flag from the staff and removed his pants and wrapped the flag around his leg to prevent the Yanks from finding it if they were captured. This illustrates how much this flag meant to them. After several days they managed to return to Confederate lines and they returned to the regiment with the flag proudly flying from a pole they had cut for it to the great joy of their comrades who delighted in seeing the flag again.

Maybe they decided that they were not going to loose another if one was surrendered at Vicksburg.

Another thought; This ebay flag if issued at Vicksburg before the siege would not have had a battle honor for Vicksburg on it and I seriously doubt if it it would have been issued during the siege in the midst of artillery and rifle fire. Certainly it could not have been delivered to the garrison through the seige and there were no flags manufactured in the city. Of course these battle honors could have been added later (in the event this flag had been issued at Vicksburg), but if that were the case, there would have been no need of issuing the regiment another flag so soon after the fall of Vicksburg especially considering that this flag was in such fine condition. This just does not make sense to me. I tend to think that Col. Gulley mispoke in this matter as to where and when the second flag was issued as he did state this many years after the war.

The mystery continues......

• 40th flag — Hayes Lowe, Fri Jan 19 20:41
• Oh! And... — Hayes Lowe, Fri Jan 19 20:43
• More on Vicksburg — Dave Neel, Fri Jan 19 19:37
• more on Vicksburg — Greg Biggs, Mon Jan 22 02:42
• Vicksburg flags. — Hayes Lowe, Wed Jan 24 14:17
• Vicksburg flags — Greg Biggs, Wed Jan 24 14:30