Thomas,

One of the Franklin historians that I know told me that the 24th Wisconsin and the 7th Texas indeed squared off near the Carter House on the Columbia Pike and this was after I informed him of the 7th Texas flag turning up.

Where did you find the description of the 3rd Tennessee's flag in Mississippi? I would love to know that. They lost their First National and Buckner/Hardee flags at Donelson and I have nothing for them between Donelson and their 1864 Augusta Depot flag.

The problem with trying to find out who carried what in the Vicksburg Campaign is the sheer scarcity of the CS flags that remain. Grant's report claimed about 85 flags taken and NONE were sent to the War Department. A Texas and Louisiana flag turn up on display at the December 1863 Cincinnati Sanitary Fair courtesy of Ge. Frank Blair. We know of the Bowen/Missouri pattern flags for his division (one lost at Big Black River) as well as the use of First Nationals (also lost at Big Black River from Vaughan's Tennessee Brigade there - another FN was smuggled out) and ANV style flags with 13 stars (Waddell's Alabama Battery at Champion Hill. The 42nd Georgia lost a 15 star ANV style flag (the Fowler Guard) also at Champion Hill that is much nicer than the 50th TN and 7th Texas flags but remains yet another 15 star flag from this theater. We also know that some if not all of Carter Stevenson's Division used flags similar to those of Bowen's Division except their fields were red (based on the surviving flag of the 39th Georgia).

So we are indeed looking at a real hodge podge of flags for this campaign. It would be great to find out why the 15 star flags. I still hope that some of the missing Vicksburg captures will still turn up someday.

Greg Biggs