The Union troops of the East saw uniform flags starting in late November, 1861 when the first silk ANV flags were issued. As the Richmond Depot began making more wool bunting flags and more units got them then the uniformity got even more uniform so to speak. However, it was not really until after the Gettysburg campaign that the ANV was fully equipped with their flags due to bunting shortages.

The Western Theater was much more varied in terms of flags. At Shiloh, four main examples were used by the C9onfederates - First Nationals (Breckinridge's Reserve Corps), Buckner/Hardee pattern flags (Hardee's Corps), Polk pattern flags (Polk's Corps) and Bragg pattern flags (Bragg's Corps), and add into that at least one Texas state flag and one Louisiana Pelican flag based on Union accounts.

Chickamauga offered an even greater variety of CS flags. By 1864, the Army of Tennessee had fought under 9 patterns of battle flags.

Greg Biggs