Regarding below:
>>>>article from The Wild Geese website]
'Undaunted Courage': The Irish at Fredericksburg
link to article;
http://www.thewildgeese.com/pages/fredpt2.html
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Link to photo of the 19th Georgia flag from the Georgia State Capital, donated by the
U.S. War Department in 1905
http://content.sos.state.ga.us/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/flag&CISOPTR=101&CISOBOX=1&REC=1
>>>>>>>
The flag taken by Meade's Division at Fredericksburg was not that of the 19th Georgia. Here is the email that I just sent the Wild Geese website:
>>>Regarding the flag above, the 19th GA was at this time, part of Archer's TN Brigade (which also included an Alabama regiment). Their line up that day was, from left to right - 19th GA, 14th TN, 7th TN, 1st TN, ALA. The 19th was posted on a small rise while the 14th Tn was in a swale to the right.
To the left of the brigade was a large woods and further left was McGowan's SC Brigade. It was in this woods that Meade's PA Division penetrated the Confederate lines. After hammering the South Carolinians and probably taking the flag of their right flank regiment, Orr's Rifles, part of the Pennsylvanians turned left and started on Archer's troops. Both the 19th GA and 14th Tn were hit and bent backwards. After some minutes the 19th GA broke and would be followed in suit by the 14th TN.
Meade's report claims the capture of the 19th GA's flag but in my research I have found out that the flag taken that day was, in fact, that of the 14th TN. The flag in question is an ANV Second Bunting issue battle flag with orange borders (see our CS flags website Flags of the Confederacy at www.confederateflags.org for details on these various bunting issues) and this pattern was a limited issue of about 50 flags in total.
There is a Second Bunting issue flag in a small museum in Jacksonville, FL that comes from the family of an officer of the 19th GA. The flag taken by Meade was sent to the War Department and given Capture # 208 and it was sent to Georgia in 1905 when the WD sent back all CS flags to their respective states.
When a unit using a Second Bunting flag lost it in action it was always replaced by the new Third Bunting flags (with the more familiar white borders) as there were no spares of the Second Bunting available at the Richmond Depot. Thus, there cannot be a Second Bunting for the 19th GA in a museum and another for the regiment in Atlanta (WD 208). This was the first clue to me that the WD 208 ID was incorrect.
Secondly, a friend found in the Compiled Service Records of the 14th TN a flag requisition asking for a flag "to replace the one lost at Fredericksburg, Dec. 1862." This is very powerful evidence that the 14th TN, not the 19th GA, lost their flag.
Lastly, I recently found an account from the color bearer of the 19th GA, Henry Garrison, who stated about Fredericksburg, "at Fredericksburg sixty of these were killed and 105 captured. We came out of this fight with just 42 men in the regiment. Here I received three shots in my right arm and sixteen bullet holes in my clothes but I saved the colors. I took them from the staff and put them in the bosom of my shirt after they had been riddles with bullets, but the Yankees did not get them."
With this statement from the 19th GA color bearer coupled with the 14th TN flag requisition, that pretty much buries forever the 19th GA losing their flag at Fredericksburg.>>>>>
Greg Biggs