You may be right about this - all it take sis one guy to toss the numbers into the stratosphere.

The US Cavalry were the last to fight under the Stars and Stripes (the Navy was the first) as battle flags. The artillery and infantry got them as battle flags before the Mexican War, the first war where they were used in combat by the Army. The cavalry temporarily got them in 1862 but after the Civil War they returned to the blue regimental colors and red over white guidons. I forget what year they got them back again legally, but so many Stars and Stripes guidons were made during the Civil War that they were sent west and used by the cavalry regiments of the Army. That is the case with the 7th Cavalry.

I doubt that many red over white guidons were used out west but could also be wrong.

Ryan Toews can probably fill in the dates here for us.

I know the brush fire at LBH in the 80s allowed for the big archaeology study to be done that totally corroborated the Indian accounts of how the battle shook out of how Custer hit the center of the village while crossing the river and had a running fight back to the last stand hill dropping off men as a rear guard along the way.

Greg Biggs