On pages 114 to 117 of The Battle Flags of the Confederate Army of Tennessee Howie Madaus describes the large ANV pattern flags of the 3rd Louisiana and 35th Mississippi. These flags were presented to these two regiments after the fall of Vicksburg by their former division commander General Maury.

The first flag, now in the collection of the Confederate Memorial Hall in New Orleans, measures 71 inches square and has a blue St Andrew’s cross with 12 white stars. It also has the battle honours VICKSBURG, CORINTH, ELKHORN, IUKA, and OAK HILL. The latter flag was captured at Allatoona in October 1864. It has not survived, but is known to have been a larger flag of much the same design with the battle honours VICKSBURG, CORINTH, HATCHIE, IUKA, and GREENWOOD.

Madaus hypothesizes that similar flags were issued to the rest of Maury’s former regiments which included the 43rd Mississippi. The flag Tom has described seems to conform to the pattern of the 3rd Louisiana flag and so may have been from the same 1863 presentation. It would be interesting to know if the 43rd Mississippi flag also had similar battle honours, presumably VICKSBURG, CORINTH, and IUKA.

Ryan Toews