Hello Bill,

As to the Confederate Marines, little information is available, a sea detachment most likely did not carry a flag. A land detachment most likely used a Confederate National flag or a standard issue battle flag.

On the U.S. side, they did have a flag but it was rarely used outside of the Washington, D.C. area. The flag was the National flag pattern, red and white stripes with a eagle and shield in the canton. Sea detachments if they had a flag it was a U.S. National, same with land detachments.

The blue field flag with the Marine Corps emblem and laurel wreath was adopted in 1914 at the time of their landing in Vera Cruz. There was several changes to the Corps flags before the scarlet one was adopted in 1925.

You can see these flags at the National Museum of the Marine Corps. 18900 Jefferson Davis Highway, Triangle, VA 22172 , the Mexican War battle flag of the Corps, newly conserved is really nice.

Happy Trails!
Tom Martin