QM officer Colin Selph was in charge of securing the bulk silk for these flags. I have found invoices for this from two Richmond dry goods dealers. At least one of them states "rich pink silk" for these flags. Based on what I have been told from lady historians who know about period female clothing red was a trim color for dresses while the larger silk bolts were for the dresses themselves. This silk was pink, magenta or other light shades of red.

Seemingly this was a Richmond problem as larger red silk bolts were available in other Southern cities. Constance Cary, one of the makers of the three prototype silk flags wrote of how hard it was to find the silk for their flags.

I would bet that very few of these flags were truly red in color and the vast majority were pink, rose or other light red shades.

Greg Biggs