BATTLE FLAGS OF THE ORPHAN BRIGADE

Part 2

Geoff Walden

   When Gen. Joseph Johnston took command of the Army of Tennessee in December 1863, he attempted to standardize the many different flag styles into one type, as was the norm in the Army of Northern Virginia. He chose a style based on the Virginia theatre battle flag: a St. Andrew's Cross pattern of blue bars on a red field, with white fimbrations (bar borders) and stars. The flags were actually made rectangular, as opposed to the square flags used in Virginia.  These flags were probably made at depot facilities in Augusta, Georgia (and possibly other locations), and issued to the army at Dalton, Georgia. The Orphan Brigade regiments were each issued one flag and one flag staff on 26 January 1864.
(Quartermaster Records, 1st Kentucky Brigade, Chapter VIII, Vol. 72, Record Group 109, National Archives

The battle flag of the 6th Kentucky Infantry was captured during the battle of Jonesboro on 1 September 1864, when the left wing of the Brigade was surrounded and overrun. The 10th Michigan Infantry captured the 6th's flag, and the 2nd Kentucky tore their colors to pieces to save them from the same fate. The flag of the 6th Kentucky was returned to Kentucky on 25 March 1905, and it is carefully preserved today in the collections of the Kentucky Military History Museum in Frankfort. (Official Records, Ser. I, Vol. 38, Pt. 1, p. 674) Left:   Battleflag of the 6th Kentucky Infantry, 1864 (courtesy Kentucky Historical Society / Military History Museum)

The 6th Kentucky's flag shows some characteristics common to other Army of Tennessee flags. Ideally, all battle flags (Federal and Confederate) were to be marked with the designation of the owning unit, in order to identify lost and captured colors. While this practice was certainly not universal, most units did identify their colors in some manner. The 6th Kentucky's flag is marked with an abbreviation of the unit's official complete designation: 6th Regiment, Kentucky Volunteer Infantry. Battle honors were added to Confederate colors in the Western Theatre beginning in late 1862. These were only supposed to indicate victorious actions in which the unit had participated, but most units listed all of their battles. Those for the 6th Kentucky included Shiloh, Vicksburgh [sic], Baton Rouge, Murfreesboro, and Chickamauga. A flag honor unique to the Army of Tennessee was the "crossed cannon inverted." This decoration was authorized for units that had captured enemy artillery in battle (the 6th Kentucky overran and captured a section of Bridges' Illinois Battery at Chickamauga).

Above: Close up of the inverted crossed cannons award, Battle flag of the 6th Kentucky Infantry (courtesy Kentucky Historical Society / Military History Museum)

   Rather than surrender their remaining flags at the end of the war, the Orphans cut them up and distributed the pieces among the men as mementos. Mrs. Bettie Phillips, wife of Capt. William Phillips of the 4th Kentucky, performed this service for the men. Pieces of the flags of the 4th and 9th regiments have been identified in private collections (the flags of the 2nd and 6th being lost at Jonesboro, and the flag of the 5th being lost at Atlanta on 22 July 1864).
(Thompson (1898), p. 322; 4th Kentucky Infantry files, collection of G.R. Walden; Filson Club Collections, Louisville, KY; Kentucky Adjutant General's Report, Vol. I, p. 286)

Crossed cannons inverted, cut from the flag of the 9th Kentucky Infantry
during the surrender at Washington, Georgia, 6 May 1865.
This piece was kept by the last color-bearer, Ensign James G. Foulks
(the lettering was probably not on the original flag, but added later to this piece).
(Photo reproduced here by the kind permission of Matt Grubb)

Pvt Richard Kidder Woodson 2nd Ky. Inf.

Several color-bearers of the Brigade earned distinction during the War Between the States. Private Richard Kidder Woodson carried the flag of the 2nd Kentucky during the disastrous charge at Murfreesboro, where he was mortally wounded. The 2nd Kentucky lost another color-bearer when Sgt. Robert Clinton Anderson was killed as he advanced through the storm of fire to plant his colors on the enemy's works at Chickamauga. Ensign Robert Henry Lindsay of the 4th Kentucky was twice named to the Confederate Roll of Honor, a very rare distinction. He was mortally wounded during the assault of the Orphan Brigade at Jonesboro on 31 August 1864. His grave lay unmarked and forgotten for years, until Kentucky members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the Fourth Kentucky Infantry reenactment unit placed a Confederate marker in the Pat Cleburne Cemetery in Jonesboro in 1992.

Grave of Ensign Robert H. Lindsay, Jonesboro

(Confederate Veteran Assn. of Kentucky, Directory, 5th Ed. (1895), p. 195; Thompson (1898), pp. 218, 588, 649; Gregory A. Walden, "Color-Bearers of the 'Orphan Brigade'," Confederate Veteran, July-August 1993, pp. 34-39)

Further information can be found in:

• Geoffrey R. Walden, "Flags of the Kentucky 'Orphan' Brigade," Journal of the Confederate Historical Society of Great Britain, Vol. 16, No. 10, Spring 1988, pp. 20-24.
• H.M. Madaus and R.H. Needham, Battle Flags of the Confederate Army of Tennessee (Milwaukee: Milwaukee Public Museum, 1976).
• Flags of the Confederacy webpage, http://www.confederateflags.org

Copyright © 1996-2008, Geoffrey R. Walden; all rights reserved.

This page last updated on:  July 29, 2008 .

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