A ship, either commercial vessel or warship carried then, and carries now, a plethora of flags for various purposes. Nick's suggestion of the flags book is excellent as I have it (will now have to see what version I have) as it details a history of naval military flags of the major maritime powers.

A typical warship of the Civil War era would carry these flags:

jack - flown on the bow staff only when in port. This was derived from the canton of the national flag

pennant - a long narrow flag flown from the main mast

ensign - the large battle flag flown from the stern of the warship - basically the national colors of the USA or CSA

boat flags - smaller flags for the launches or gigs of the warship, each one aboard having one.

Please note that ensigns and boat flags came in various sizes depending on the rating of the warship (done by size of the ship largest to smallest)

Ships also carried signal flags based on the 1850s Rogers System although the Confederates altered the system to their own purposes.

For saluting purposes flags of various maritime nations were also carried in the ship's flag locker. If you can find a copy of the 1861 Virginia Legislature report of the flags and flag cloth seized by state forces from the US Navy yard at Gosport/Norfolk, it lists a number of national flags from France,Britain, etc. being captured.

Blockade runners also carried foreign flags for subterfuge purposes. If you peruse the Naval ORs you will note a number of these vessels captured flying foreign flags or with foreign flags found aboard.

Thus, the four blockade runners trapped in Mobile Bay when Farragut closed that port in the summer of 1864 would have had foreign flags aboard as well as CS flags and some state flags especially if that ship was home ported in that state, say like South Carolina. This is the most likely source of the red flag from Iowa now the focal point of chanting and dancing by Citadel cadets even if their great "historical committee" tossed that off as being "not likely." Anything that we told them that disagreed with their already reached conclusion was tossed off as "not likely." They brought great dishonor to a fine institution.

Sorry - I had to throw that in. Their "report" would have gotten an "F" from any good history professor for not proving their point.

Anyway - I hope this little flags primer was of help. If I made any errors you can bet that someone on the board will properly correct them - same with omissions.

Greg Biggs