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Re: Flag of the 43Rd Miss.
In Response To: Re: Flag of the 43Rd Miss. ()

Hello,

I have documentation of a flag issued to the 43rd Mississippi Infantry in 1864. According to the Mobile Evening News (August 15, 1864), the regiment received a flag from Helen Cozart on May 20, 1864. However, the paper was very late reporting the presentation which was actually in May 1864 as acknowledged on May 29, 1864 by Colonel Richard Harrison and the original presentation date.

The article makes no description of the flag at all other than calling it a "beautiful banner" by Colonel Harrison. There was a Latin motto mentioned in the article but no indication that it was on the flag.

Two things - this was either a Second National (some of which were issued to Mississippi and Tennessee cavalry units at this time in Mississippi - the 7th Tennessee Cavalry and 18th Mississippi Cavalry Battalion come right to mind) or, as the late Howard Madaus thought, it might be one of the large 12 star ANV style flags as issued to the 3rd Louisiana Infantry. These have been called Maury pattern battle flags as it seems those that survive were for units of his old division.

With regards to older flags, I doubt that they ever received a Bonnie Blue or Mississippi state flag. Exceedingly few of both patterns were ever issued to regiments or even companies especially after the Fall of 1861. The 43rd Mississippi was not organized until mid-1862 and the use, limited as they were, were long past by then. As they affiliated with the old Army of the West, now dubbed the Army of West Tennessee under Price and Van Dorn, they probably got a Van Dorn pattern flag in August/September 1862.

After that, in 1864, if the flag mentioned above was only a special presentation flag and not really intended for a battle flag, they could have had a 12 star rectangular battle flag from the Mobile Depot (made mostly by local flag maker Jackson and Sarah Belknap; only a few were made by James Cameron) as issued to units of the Department of Alabama, Mississippi and East Louisiana.

None of their flags survive.

Hope this helps.

Greg Biggs

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