In 1861 after First Manassas, the CS Army of the Potomac was striving to figure out how to make their troops look more identifiable on the battlefield. One of the concepts was to sew orange wool bunting wing badges to the soldiers uniforms and to that end stocks of this bunting was purchased. It did not work out and became a moot point when the ANV flag was adopted in late November, 1861.

But having bought the stuff from England, and not wanting to waste the cloth, it was made into the borders for the First and Second Wool Bunting issues of the Richmond Depot produced ANV flags that came out in June-July, 1862. Once the orange wool stocks were gone they changed to white borders for the Third Bunting flags which would be the standard for these flags through the end of the war.

Greg Biggs