The 18th Texas was my g,g,grandfather's unit. The flag is preserved in the Texas State Archives. I went to Austin last month and was able to look at the flag. It is not on constant display. A Mr. Anderson told me on a previous visit that he would email me when it was out of it's crate for temporary display---he kept his word. I took pictures but they were not as good as the one in a flag book that is sold in one of the state shops.

My grandfather survived the war by being catured (again) during the Atlanta campaign. A good thing for me because he was in Fort Douglas Yankee prison and General Hood didn't get the chance to have him slaughtered at Franklin, Tenn. making repeated frontal assualts on emtrenched forces that cost the lives of Gen. Cleburne and Gen. Granbury and three other Confederate generals. It is my unconfirmed opinion that Hood was probably "stoned" on narcotics when he ordered the stupid assaults. He had chronic pain from previous battle injuries and narcotics available to him for self administration in his tent. He is not one of my favorite Confederate generals. There is a common opinion that he was an capable division commander but was not a good Corps commander. He was also known for not taking credit for his own mistakes.

I may have covered more than you wished to know!

William

Hardee/Cleburne Battle Flag, 1864
by Alan K. Sumrall THE CLEBURNE BATTLE FLAG
In early March of 1864, shortly after Hardee's Corps of the Army of Tennessee had returned to Dalton from its sojourn to reinforce General Polk's Army of Mississippi, General Cleburne petitioned that the four brigades of his division be permitted to retain the distinctive blue battle flags that had been employed by Hardee's Corps throughout 1863. Although General Joseph E. Johston had been attempting to enforce a uniform battle flag upon the Army of Tennessee since his arrival on 27 December 1863, he relented in the case of Cleburne's Division and allowed that command to be recognized by the blue flags with white central discs and white borders that had been their distinctive flags since Bowling Green in the winter of 1861-1862.
As a result of Johnston's decision, the units of the four brigades of Cleburne's Division (consisting of three artillery batteries and 29 infantry or dismounted cavalry battalions and regiments-- operating as 21 separate or consolidated commands) received new battle flags. The fields of these flags were made of a wool flannel, poorly dyed blue, edged on all sides with a white cotton border, 1 1/2" wide on the three exterior sides and 2 1/2" to 3" wide on the staff side (that also served as a sleeve for the staff). The overall size of the flag thus measured about 30" on the hoist by 39" to 40" on the fly. In the center of the blue field, appliqued to each side was a white cotton disc, somewhere between rectangular and elliptical in shape and measuring approximately 9 1/2" high and 12" wide. Once issued to the regiments in the field, these flags were decorated with battle honors, including the "crossed cannon inverted" honor (but with muzzles upward) if the units had captured artillery in combat, and a regimental abbreviation, usually in the central disc. With these flags, Cleburne's Division fought through the arduous Atlanta Campaign.