Thanks for the clarification as to the GO for the yellow cav flags and when they were actually approved.

The auction house that recently sold the yellow flag of the 2nd US Cav was sure that this was ante-bellum as it had painted devices instead of embroidered. Steve Hill, and to a lesser extent myself, corrected them. One of the things I told their historian is that 1861 US flag regs also call for embroidery on the flags but when it comes to making gobs of flags for war embroidery would take far too long - hence the painting.

The 2nd US Cav flag was probably done for the Span-Am War and when you are raising regiments or equipping regiments for war you go with the fastest way to get that equipment into the hands of the troops.

Steve sent me images of a number of US flags from the post=1887 era and most of them had painted devices.

So the 6th US Cavalry in the CW didn't really fight as a unit?

Greg Biggs