My great-grandfather was Sgt. Benjamin Bluford Seale of Company F, 40th Ala. Inf. Regt. He was a dentist by trade and a resident of Sumter County, Alabama. He enlisted as a sergeant 02 May 1862 at Choctaw County, Alabama. Born: 23 August 1839 near Gaston, Sumter County, Alabama. Died: 23 August 1909. Buried in Brewersville Cemetery at Christian Valley Baptist Church, near Coatopa (Ala. Hwy 28), Sumter County, Alabama. I cannot conclusively say that he was actually a color bearer. I have researched his Confederate service records and the records of his regiment fairly extensively and have found nothing official that would indicate such. The only reference that I have found is an account that he wrote some time after the war relating his later war experiences. In this account, he begins stating that after Vicksburg their next engagement was Lookout Mountain. He had written "B.B. Seale carried our battle flag", but had crossed this out with a pencil line and started another sentence. At the time of this battle he was a sergeant, but with a history of serious health issues. He had been discharged in December 1861 from another unit, Company C 21st Ala. Inf. Regt., due to his suffering with typhoid fever. They had pretty much sent him home to die. He recovered and joined another unit that became Company F, 40th Ala. Inf. Regt. that was being formed near his home in May 1862. He had again suffered with health issues ("febris remit" - malaria?) after the Vicksburg seige and was hospitalized for some time after this before the Battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge 24 & 25 November 1863. He was again listed as sick in hospital during December 1863 after those battles. He was transferred to the regimental band in February 1864 and assigned as Brigade Wagonmaster for Baker's Brigade during the Atlanta Campaign. His brigade was ordered to the Mobile area before Atlanta fell. In January 1865 they were ordered back to the Army of Tennessee and I am certain by his written account that he fought in the Battle of Bentonville, North Carolina as a rifle carrying infantryman. He was wounded - shot through both legs - and captured there. Sent to POW camp at David's Island in New York Harbor, remaining there until June 1865.

I probably told you far more than you wanted to know, my point to this is that there is the possibility that he MIGHT have carried the regimental flag at Lookout Mountain and/or Missionary Ridge. I tend to think that he maybe started to state that he carried their flag to UCV conventions which he actively attended. This is just a guess. I do know that he was a personal friend of Lt. Col. Gulley who kept possession of the flag after the war's end and lived in the same area as he. The truth is that I cannot find any evidence that he at any time was a color bearer other than this crossed out statement written by him after the war. Maybe he did or maybe not.

Having said that I will give you some useful documented information: The flag of the 40th Ala. Inf. Regt. that was last used - the one issued at Dalton, Georgia in 1864, taken home by Lt. Col. Gulley, and now housed at the Alabama Archives - has the blood stains of a documented color bearer, Sergeant Preston S. Gilder of Company E. He was killed 15 May 1864 at the Battle of Resaca, Georgia, shot through the heart. Sgt. Gilder died clutching the flag. Gilder enlisted as a corporal 22 March 1862 at Choctaw County, Alabama. He was promoted to sergeant 12 November 1862. Captured 04 July 1863 at Vicksburg and paroled there 09 July 1863.

If I can be of any further help, please let me know. I have four boxes full of large note cards that I have made on every individual member that served with this regiment that I have been able to discover records for.