Veteran accounts are quite often filled with erroneous information regarding their flags, among other things. I have seen dozens of these accounts over the years where they have said that they followed "this flag through the war," when it was a pattern that did not come into service until late 1863 or even 1864! Case in point for the 37th Alabama Infantry's Mobile Depot flag issued in late 1863. I can also cite this for the Mobile Depot flag issued in July, 1864 that has a claim that it was made and issued in 1862 - again from veteran's accounts.

Black & white pictures are also often wrong in the perceived color of objects due to a number of reasons, some of which having to do with the photo processing of the time not being nearly as accurate as it is now. Additionally, extensive exposure to the sun does fade silks which were made in a less strong manner then than they are today and used a process to make them that actually weakened the cloth. This is also due to poor dyes sometimes used. For example, many of the surviving Army of Northern Virginia battle flags from the late 1861 issue, pink or rose in color originally, are now almost all a cream color due to this fading of the dyes used. Indigo dyes tend to hold better but even they can fade out.

What you have to come up with for any of us to buy into the theory is written documentation from quartermaster records of the time that stated that the 7th US Cavalry was issued a yellow flag, which did not exist at the time for cavalry. Something from Colonel Samuel Sturgis who, as regimental commander, would have the responsibility to see that his regiment was properly equipped, could have written the requisition himself or delegated that to his regimental quartermaster, written during this time frame would be nice. The National Archives has hundreds of thousands of QM records from the mid to late 19th Century that might have these clues for your case. If Sturgis has any surviving correspondence from the time there may be something in there too.

The case you have to prove is how only one US Cavalry regiment somehow got a flag reserved by regulations for the artillery as a regimental banner and in a size significantly smaller than the artillery flag and did this before the 1880s regulations for the changing of the cavalry flags.

Greg Biggs