I notice two brief posts on this flag when it was first being catalogued at Heritage. The full listing is now up. The dimensions are 30 by 36 inches, but the ragged edges make it show it is the central piece of a somewhat larger banner, probably “souvenired” by a northern soldier in the occupation of Jackson, Miss. The Mississippi Rifles were the subject of a uniform plate by the Company of Military Historians and I have posted the auction to their forum with a few notes regarding the company’s dress. Perhaps of interest to this forum, I have found references to three flags connected with the company.
According to a privately printed history of the unit by John Rietti, one of its members, the company formed in 1858. The only flag he mentions, however, is one presented to them by the ladies of Jackson in March, 1861, as they left for twelve months service as Co. A 10th Mississippi, one of the first two regiments from the state to enter Confederate service. According to Rietti, the flag bore the presentation and the words “Our Boys,” but no other details are given, and I am not aware the flag still exists.
Two other flags, though, are documented by contemporary newspaper accounts. The Semi-Weekly Mississippian records the April 1860 gift to the company of the old flag of the “Hinds County Fencibles… subsequently adopted by the Mississippi Regiment in Mexico.” This must refer to the Raymond Fencibles, who became Co. G in Jeff Davis’s Mexican War regiment. Like the above flag, I am not sure if it still exists. That it was “adopted by the Mississippi Regiment in Mexico” makes it an early claimant for the honor of being a regimental color of the unit. Regardless of the merit of that claim, the gift was appropriate since the company could claim descent from the regiment through Lt. Richard Griffith, who had served as Davis’s adjutant in Mexico.
The third flag I find mentioned in connection with the company is the flag at Heritage. As mentioned in their description the 3 July 1860 issue of the Semi-Weekly Mississippian alerts the public to the coming Independence Day festivities and the 6 July 1860 issue records them, including the presentation of the flag by a Miss Sally Hay and its acceptance on behalf of the company by Lt. R.A. Smith. Smith later commanded the company, led it at the beginning of the war and became Colonel of the 10th Mississippi. At the regiment’s reenlistment in 1862 the Mississippi Rifles became Co. D, commanded by Smith’s brother-in-law, George Dobson.
I wonder if any member of this list might have an idea of the flag maker? The painting, an eagle perched on a mountain top carrying a ribband reading “TRY US,” is extremely well done and, to my eye, suggests one the major military suppliers of the period. Horstmann immediately comes to mind, but I confess it is rather a default guess on my part.
I attach a link to the auction, but if going in directly, the lot number is 52201.