I do Rev War, Frederickian era and Napoleonic flags and Jim might not mind us talking about them here (Jim?) and I know some of the other posters here also have those interests.

You are quite correct about the manuals and practice in the field being different. I know that Napoleonic era regiments were much larger than Civil War regiments were having (in the case of the French) 2-4 battalions of maneuver each with a flag and the regiment numbering 2-2500 men. British regiments also had at least two maneuver battalions but it was rare that both served together on campaign as one typically stayed home to recruit and provide trained replacements for the battalion in the field. Each also had its own colors I believe.

So seeing what Von Steuben wrote and then seeing three flags being taken at Waxhaws certainly throws out the regulations quite a bit. I know that Von Steuben was parroting the newer British regulations for having a King's and regimental colors for each battalion but it was not that long before the Rev War where British regiments carried three flags and even before that as many as 13 flags (colonel's color, Lt. colonel's color, major's color and one for each of the ten captains) and that Frederick's Prussian regiments carried five flags.

There are some great articles on many of these flags that can be found in back issues of Military Collector & Historian journal of the Company of Military Historians by the way. I am assuming you have Richardson's fabulous book on Rev War colors?

Greg Biggs