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This extremely rare battle flag is the official Regimental Color of the 328th U.S. Infantry Regiment, one of the four original infantry regiments of the famed 82nd Infantry Division.  The 82nd Infantry Division was organized at Camp Gordon, Georgia, on August 25, 1917.  The division organized into two infantry brigades:  the 163rd Brigade which consisted of the 325th and 326th Infantry Regiments, and the 164th Brigade, which consisted of the 327th and 328th Infantry Regiment, whose original Regimental Color is shown here.  The 82nd Division earned the nickname "All American" when the officers of the division realized that the unit's soldiers represented all 48 states, the current number of states at the time.  Today the 82nd Division (Airborne) is still known as the "All American" Division and is one of the most storied units in American military history.

One of the most famous soldiers to serve in World War I is Sergeant Alvin C. York.  Sergeant York served under the command of this flag, serving in Company G of the 328th Infantry Regiment.  On October 8, 1918, Alvin York, then a Corporal, joined a small contingent of men to infiltrate the German lines and to silence serveral machine gun nests.  When nine of the soldiers were cut down by enemy fire, York assumed command of the remaining seven soldiers.  While his men remained under cover, York personally worked his way toward the enemy positions.
 

	"And those machine guns were spitting fire and cutting down the undergrowth all around me something awful. And the Germans were yelling orders. You never heard such a racket in all of your life. I didn't have time to dodge behind a tree or dive into the brush... As soon as the machine guns opened fire on me, I began to exchange shots with them. There were over thirty of them in continuous action, and all I could do was touch the Germans off just as fast as I could. I was sharp shooting... All the time I kept yelling at them to come down. I didn't want to kill any more than I had to. But it was they or I. And I was giving them the best I had."	Sergeant Alvin C. York G Company, 328th Infantry Regiment This original press photo shows Sergeant York wearing his Congressional Medal of Honor and Distinguished Cross.(IAS-00296)
York continued to call to the Germans, telling them to surrender.  Eventually, seeing the heavy losses that York's sharpshooting was inflicting on his men, German First Lieutenant Paul Jürgen Vollmer surrendered 132 of his men to York.  Following this action, York was promptly promoted to Sergeant and awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.  Several months later, Sergeant Alvin C. York was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for heroism.  He was known as the most decorated American soldier of World War I. This flag and its regiment fought some of the hardest battles of World War I, including the St. Mihiel Offensive and the the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.

The 328th Infantry Regiment Color is in an extraordinary state of preservation.  Darker discoloration along the sleeve hoist was caused by exposure to weather while hanging on its original wooden staff, which is now lost.  The flag's silk remains strong and intact.  The flag consists of two panels of heavy silk sewn back to back, both with the hand embroidered Great Seal of the United States and Regimental Scroll.  The contract manufacturer of these flags would sew and embroider them to a complete state, with the exception of the actual numeric unit designator.  Only when the flag was issued to the unit would the designator be hand embroidered into the left portion of the scroll.  Sewn into the tab on the inside of the hoist is a small white Army Quartermaster tag dated January 28, 1918, when the unit was still in training at Camp Gordon, Georgia, and nine months before Sergeant York's heroic actions during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Close inspection of the flag shows indications of exposure to water and sunlight, as expected for a flag that saw service in combat under the harshest of field conditions.  The flag is among the rarest of battle flags in private hands, being one of the original colors of the famed U.S. 82nd Infantry Division, and is a treasure of the Rare Flags Collection. 

Click here to read "The History of the Three Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Regiment of Infantry, Eighty Second Division, American Expeditionary Forces United States Army"