Anthony,

Thank you for the desription provided by the State Historical Society of Iowa. That clears up that there are definitely two flags there- I was just confused since the information page only lists one flag for Bell's Regiment.

One thing that isn't clear in their description is whether Col. Mackey personally identified both flags as belonging to Bell's command, or if the staff at the SHSI came to that conclusion from their own study of the 33rd Iowa at Helena. Col. Mackey in his report mentions capturing two flags, but does not connect them to any regiment. It appears that neither flag in the Iowa collection has any markings that can directly connect them to a particular regiment. Since Bell's Regiment suffered the greatest loss in prisoners, it is certainly natural to suspect that both flags came from their regiment- but is there a source that provides proof?

I noticed from your earlier post that of the three captured flags, you believe two belonged to Hawthorn's Regiment and one belonged to Bell's. Are there any sources from Hawthorn's Regiment that states they lost two flags?

It had been quite a while since I had read the official reports from the fighting at Battery D/Hindman Hill. It's almost unbelievable what the Confederate troops went through at Helena. I can't think of any battle where the physical limits of human endurance were pushed to such extremes.

Allan