Almost all of the bunting used in the Civil War, north and south, came from England. English bunting was the best in the world at the time and in order for a cloth to be called "bunting" over there it had to pass rigorous quality control before the name could be applied. There were two styles mainly - single ply (used for naval and fort flags, etc. and some unit flags) and double ply (used for unit flags mostly). The differences were in the looseness of the weaves.

American bunting came online after the war I believe and it was not as good from what I have been told by textiles people I have asked.

Bunting was made from wool. So was merino, which was a finer combed cloth from Merino sheep of Spain and France.

Greg Biggs