ANV flags had both hand and machine sewing. In my research I have found the Richmond Depot itself was not that big so the bulk cloth came into there and upwards of 60 cutters cut the cloth into uniforms kits, flag kits, etc. and then the women came to the depot to pick up the kits, take them home and sew them there. They then brought the completed items back for inspection and to take home more kits. The Richmond QM officer reported in a November 1862 newspaper that some 2000 women were working for the depot.

The MOC's John Coski and I pinned down where this was and there was no way these women would fit into where the building was so it was a continuation of the traditional cottage industry for American military equipage. If the women had sewing machines and thread for such machines they used them for making the flags. Some women did not and hand sewed them. Some did both depending on how easy it was to reach parts of the flag they assembled. There seems to be evidence that the later bunting issues (5th through 7th) show a higher level of machine sewing than do the earlier issues.

With regards to anything on paper showing the women how to make the flags, since everyone sewed back then (pretty much) all that was needed, I think, was for a QM officer to show them the finished product and let the new maker talk to women that had made them already. Since the flat fell seam is all over these flags, and that was a common sewing technique, it was just a matter of putting Part A to part B, etc. and this would not have been too hard to learn. There are existing payroll vouchers for the depot women at the National Archives but no one I know of has really gone through them. A historian did for the Macon Arsenal and found they made some flags there in 1864 at least. There's a ton of these vouchers for the Richmond Depot so it will be a matter of going through them.

Greg Biggs