Time to apologize to the flag historians on this board. Raymond has stated that he cannot definitely state that a yellow flag at at LBH and has said so twice. I cannot take the word of an artist who could have taken artistic license as did the Kurz & Allison paintings of the Civil War.

In the color Paxson painting, what is your explanation for the existence of the clearly blue flag to the right side of the image? You probably do not have one and probably also wish it was not there but that is CLEARLY a US regimental cavalry standard!!!!!!

Oooppppssss!!!!

Most of the posters on this board have forgotten more about US military flags than you have ever known. Ben Ford and I have disagreed at times but he has a wealth of knowledge that I deeply respect. He and I share an interest in the Napoleonic era as well and he has been kind enough to share images of things with me. Tom Martin is a very well respected flag maker who does amazing research and has attended numerous flag conferences over the years. A number of state museum curators also post here. Add to that a number of other fine members of this board and you have a wall stacked quite high against you and your big mouth.

If there was a yellow flag at LBH - and that seems to me a big IF - then it was not their regimental standard and could quite possibly be some HQ flag created in the field. Custer played fast and loose with regulations, as we know. In the Civil War a number of commanders created their own HQ flag without benefit of regulations. The US Army used the McClellan system of flags in 1863 and a newer and far less complicated system created by Butterfield in 1864-war's end. Only the Confederate Army of Tennessee adopted an official HQ flag system and that was not until early 1864 with one last corps not getting them until fall of 1864.

Custer had a number of HQ flags and no one in the Army chain of command seemed to care. Sheridan did as well.

So unless you can post here at least three sources that pre-date LBH from the 1875-1876 era that the official regimental standard of the 7th US Cavalry was yellow, when ALL of the cavalry regimental standards of the era were blue, then go pound sand! At least one or two of those sources must include Samuel Sturgis and George Armstrong Custer who were the commanders of that regiment.

One last thing, I would like to add to Tom Martin's post about the history of US Army colors. The two flags system was adopted during the Rev War with the completion of Baron Von Steuben's "Blue Book," which basically copied the British system of two flags per regiment (King's colours and regimental colours). Inductive evidence shows that there was not enough silk to go with this system and that most Continental regiments did not carry but one flag (there are a couple exceptions).

The "modern" US Army system starts in the 1790s and continues from there. I think it was 1808 (I can double check this) when the Army went with the blue flag with National coat of arms as the National colors and a yellow or buff flag with just the regimental designation on a scroll as the regimental banner. This served through the War of 1812 and later. The artillery then got to carry the Stars and Stripes in the 1830s as their national colors with the blue flag becoming the regimental and, just before the Mexican War, the infantry did the same. The Mexican War was the first time that the US Army used the Stars and Stripes national colors as a battle flag while still carrying the blue regimentals. The yellow/buff flags were then retired. There is a fine painting that is actually historically accurate in terms of the flags used at least, for Winfield Scott's brigade at Chippewa in the War of 1812 that you can probably find online.

With the creation of the Regiment of Mounted Rifles in the 1830s, that unit, being a rifle unit, was issued a green regimental flag as that was the color for rifle units (Hessian Jaegers wore green uniforms in the Rev War and I think the British rifle regiments also bore green colors - I might be wrong). Their 1848 flag is green. Cavalry regiments carried blue regimentals and red over white troop guidons at this time (1st and 2nd US Cavalry, raised in the 1850s). The red over white guidons were replaced in 1862 with Stars and Stripes guidons for the Civil War and so many were produced that they were not only used as infantry flank markers but also for the Army well into the 1880s.

And, the coup de grace, the yellow cavalry standards do not come into use officially until 1887. I know of no provable use of the yellow flag by a cavalry regiment prior to this time as an official regimental standard.

The ball's in your court Joe - and insulting us is no way to play nice!

Greg Biggs