I got images of the flag from another source and it has a 5th Georgia Cavalry veteran's connection.

With regards to the 1907 UCV flags book done under the auspices of Dr. Samuel Lewis, having been through his boxes upon boxes of papers at the Virginia Historical Society, what came out was not what he planned to publish. What came out helped perpetuate the myth of the single battle flag (and one of the 4th Bunting size) over all other CS battle flag patterns.

However, Lewis did not intend to do that as his papers show. He appealed to CS veterans everywhere and many responded by sending in things including an AOT veteran who sent in details, and color drawings, of the HQ flags the AOT created in the Spring of 1864 and Fall of 1864. Also in these papers is the original manuscript and it shows that Lewis was not just oriented towards the ANV flag but covered others as well.

So what happened? Well the UCV was cheap and did not have the money to publish what Lewis had assembled, much to the detriment of early CS flag studies. They eventually cut the manuscript down and what came out was what was left and not what Lewis intended at all. Additionally, the book was a massive sales flop! The UCV ended up giving copies away and took a financial bath on the project. The Lewis Papers contain the correspondence with UCV adjutant Mickle (or McMickle - I would have to pull my files for the right name) with the back and forth between them over finances, etc. One document even ripped the recently formed SCV as saying that all they cared about was drinking and dinners! They seemingly did not care about the flags book - and this may be the root cause of why the SCV still does not get it right with regards to all of the CS battle flags (I am a former SCV member and know of what I speak).

I have an original copy of this book and it was nice to be able to compare it with what Lewis intended to publish. It is too bad for CS flags history that he was not able to do so.

Greg Biggs