At first glance, this
flag, printed on wool with 35 stars, seems to be a
fairly typical printed parade flag of the period.
In truth, the flag is anything but typical. This
rare flag is a U.S. national pattern as prescribed in
General Order No. 4, Headquarters of the U.S. Army,
dated January 18, 1862, issued by Major General George
B. McClellan.
Camp colors were the
smallest military issue colors and were designated to be
flown in camp outside of headquarters tents and
buildings. Because they were regulated by the
General Order, the few camp colors that have survived
have the same general appearance whereby the hoist of
the flag consists of a sleeve that is sewn from the
canton and stripe material. All examples I'm aware
of are made of high grade press-dyed wool bunting.
One of the attributes
that is most appealing about this flag is that it shows
clear indications that it was tacked to a staff and
sustained wear from being flown--evidence that it was
used by a unit in the field and not merely stored at a
depot. The flag was found in New York State and
probably belonged to a New York Regiment. There
are several camp colors in the New York State Battle
Flag Collection, and
one pair in particular, carried by the 128th New
York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, is of identical design
to this camp color. This flag was most likely
manufactured by William F. Scheible & Company of
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Another known camp
color of identical design, star count, star
configuration and size had a paper label glued to its
staff that read "One Camp Color / From Wm. F. Scheible /
Philadelphia, PA. / No. 110 Contract January 2d 1865".
Three thousand camp colors from Scheible were contracted
by the Cincinnati Depot on January 2, 1865, most likely
all of them in this pattern. Only a small handful
of any camp colors are known to have survived to the
present day, most in the collections of states and
institutions.
A pair of original 35 Star Camp
Colors in the identical pattern to IAS-00227,
manufactured by William F. Scheible & Co.
|
