Greg Biggs
flags of Moore's Brigade
Mon Jan 22 23:48:22 2001


Hello Henry,

Bob Bradley at the ADAH in Montgomery is the source for the several accounts I know of pertaining to the regiments of Moore's Brigade receiving flags at Demopolis while in the parole camps. These are all from men of the respective regiments (20th, 23rd, 37th, 40th and 46th - two of which were from Moore's command) - one (37th ALA) stating that they received their flag at Demopolis and lost it on Missonary Ridge. The Enterprise Weekly of Feb. 26, 1902 has an article telling of the grand review there and the new flags being flown by the troops.

Some of these flags may have been part of the 34 made by Jacob Gall, which were Hardee flags. The OR accounts for the capture of the flag from Moore's Brigade is in a pile of things I have for an essay on these captures for our Flags Of The Confederacy website (www.confederateflags.org) and I am not finished charting them out. It can be found in the reports from Chattanooga though. The report for the 25th Illinois claims the capture of the flag of the 42nd Alabama on Missionary Ridge, for example.

But it is the report of the 149th New York that is of the most interest here. This regiment was a flag capturing machine in the Chattanooga Campaign with the following under their belts:

29th Mississippi (Hardee, WD 95); 34th Mississippi (Hardee, WD 94) - both from Lookout Mountain and Walthall's Mississippi Brigade (who lost another flag to another Yankee regiment there as well). Semple's Alabama Battery lost two flags at Ringgold Gap to them - WD 87 (blue Hardee guidon, now missing)and WD 92 - First National flag at the Museum Of The Confederacy.

The last flag they captured is described as this: "Another flag, similar to the first two described (the Miss. Hardee's), was taken by Private McAllister, Co. I, in the assault upon Lookout Mountain. McAllister was afterward severely wounded and taken to hospital, carrying the flag with him. We have been unable to learn what hospital he has been taken to or to obtain possession of the flag."

I had originally thought this was the Hardee flag of the 30th Mississippi, also of Walthall's Brigade (like the Miss. units above)- but that flag is in a private collection and was the one used on the mountain, where, along with an account of the 27th Mississippi, they were not captured. So - that leaves the flag McAllister took to one of the regiments of Moore's Brigade, who came up to support Walthall's as they fell back past the Craven's House. And the description is pretty clear - it was a Hardee flag./

BTW - many Hardee flags are unmarked completely, some have only a battle honor or two, and some have honors and designations.

Greg Biggs








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