More below:

>>>>>Edited quote from manuscript titled "The 33rd Alabama Regiment in the Civil War" by W. E. Preston (Mathews) [Private, Co. B from March 1862 to April 1865], ADAH, p. 53:

"When Co. B went to Pensacola, [Florida in April 1862] we carried a silk Confederate flag that I understood was made by the wives of Noah Fountain, James Metcalf, Robert E. E. Ward, Joseph A. Pelham and perhaps others. The first 33rd Alabama flag was of red, white and blue silk, which we exchanged or dispensed with at Tupelo [Mississippi] about June 1862, for a [Hardee pattern] blue and white silk flag some 48 inches square with a white border some two inches wide about it, and a white new moon or crescent moon in the center. The name and number of the regiment were made of silk and sewed onto each side of the flag, thus, 33rd Alabama."

QUESTIONS:
1. Which flag would they have carried in March-April 1862 to Pensacola?<<<<<<<<

Rule Number One regarding post-war memoirs - beware! Sometimes they got things right and sometimes they did not. The fog of time tempered vivid memories and many mistakes were often made. It is more helpful to find two or more additional sources to corroborate what he wrote. The regiment actually formed in Pensacola in April 1862 according to Stewart Sifakis who used the CSRs as his basis. So the flag they first used as a silk First National. I do not know how many of the companies of the regiment received flags beforehand, one of which may have been used as the regimental flag.

>>>>>2. The Hardee pattern flag description seems to better match the 1863 3rd pattern - are there examples of 2nd pattern [June 1862] Hardee flags that are 48" square? 3. Could there be a "missing" pattern Hardee flag issued in June 1862 similar to the 3rd Hardee pattern of 1863?>>>>>

You are trying to fit the Hardee flags into what came from the Confederate depot system which came at specific times and more often than not very standard sizes. The Hardee flags were the opposite - many sizes and styles, and since almost all of them were made in the field probably by soldiers with tailoring skills, who knows when all of them were actually done and where. I highly doubt the claim that their first Hardee flag from Tupelo was silk. I found the invoice of the dry goods dealer in Corinth, Mississippi that sold the blue and white cloth (cotton and wool) for the making of the flags in May-June 1862. Silk in this part of Mississippi was very scarce by this time. His account that the flag was 48 inches square may be right - as there are Hardee flags of all sizes out there still.

>>>>>4. Are there any actual examples or other descriptions of a Hardee pattern flag with a "crescent moon" on it? [L.B. Williams added remarks on page 54: "[Hardee flags] do not have crescent moons. Yet Preston was there. He was an eyewitness to the issuance of the flags. He fought under them. The man knew what he saw. When and how the change came from crescent to full moon on the blue field simply is not clear. 'Battles and Leaders' shows a picture of Cleburne's Division fending off Sherman on Missionary Ridge. The flag appearing in that picture bears out Preston's contention, a white crescent."]>>>>>>

I have only heard of these accounts of the "moon" being a crescent. It is hyperbole. I am familiar with the image in B & L but based on the surviving flags none of them had this design.

>>>>>>Private Preston's quote continues:

"This flag had holes shot in it at Perryville, Ky., and again at Murfreesboro. We drew a new one like it at Wartrace, Tenn. [while in winter quarters], in the spring of 1863. [This would be the Hardee 3rd Pattern.] On this [flag], in addition to the number and name of the regiment, it had Perryville and Murfreesboro in large white letters on each side. At Chickamauga, this one had holes shot in it and the staff was shot and broken near the lower corner of the colors. Neal Godwin, the color bearer, first put the colors on the longer piece of the staff while on the battlefield. Afterwards, he made a new staff...This flag and staff we also exchanged for a [Hardee-Cleburne pattern] new one at Dalton, Ga., spring of 1864, and on this flag was the same lettering as on the older one with the addition of Chickamauga [and Ringgold Gap - this flag at ADAH]...An oilcloth sheath came with each regimental flag and Godwin wore a leather pocket on his belt in which to support the staff."

5. Are there any examples [photos available] of the oilcloth sheath and the leather pocket on a belt?>>>>>>

The MOC has a couple I believe. I saw an oil cloth cover online a few months ago just by Googling for it. I am not sure how many color belts were ever used in the CSA since their flags were much smaller than the US flags were, which much more necessitated the use of color belts. Wartrace, TN was where the new flags were issued and repaired. British Colonel Fremantle made note of these Hardee flags in his accounts of his travels in the south. He also made mention of their battle honors.

>>>>>>6. What other evidence or references are available representing the issuance of these Hardee-Cleburne flags sometime in the spring of 1864 that would help narrow down the date? I consider spring to be AFTER Feb. 1864 which has been a referenced month for issuance.
7. Does anyone know when the 15th Miss. Sharpshooters were disbanded in the spring of 1864 - mid to late March or April?>>>>>>

The Hawkins SS Battalion Hardee/Cleburne flag was issued in February 1864 and the battalion disbanded in March. We know that the Augusta Depot flags hit the field starting in late January and continued into March 1864, so the Cleburne flags came at the same time. I wish we could find what dry goods dealer sold the cloth - I suspect it was from Atlanta. At some point I will work through the list of Atlanta dry goods stores that I have and see if that pans out in the Citizens & Business files.

Greg Biggs