Loads of CS flags taken in the war were never sent to the US War Department. Here's a few examples:

1) Fort Henry/Donelson Campaign - no flags were sent in. Some were sent to respective states and some went home with officers. I know of an officer of the 44th Indiana, a former Congressman, who sent a flag to his home in Fort Wayne. Dozens of flags were taken here; several were thrown into the Cumberland River.

2) Corinth - October 1862. Rosecrans claimed something like 18 flags taken - none were sent to the War Department.

3) Vicksburg - Grant claimed something like 85 flags taken. Not one was sent in. Two were given (or taken) by Gen. Frank Blair. He loaned these flags to the Cincinnati Sanitary Fair in December 1863 - one was a Texas regiment; the other was Louisiana.

4) The Union Army of the James, according to the late Howard Madaus, never sent in a single flag they captured. Some ended up with some of their generals including one that came onto the market a year or so ago taken from Clingman's NC Brigade at Fort Harrison.

There's loads more. Then you have to research what the Northern state collections have still and used to have but sent back to the respective Southern state in the 20th Century. Iowa has about 20 CS flags; New York a similar number; New Jersey still has some; Ohio has two; Wisconsin has several still, etc.

Greg Biggs