Tennessee Museum Seeks Battle Flags
By Gregory L. Wade
(August 2008)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee State Museum has been making an effort to catalog, document and find all the flags that were carried by its sons on both sides of the Civil War. Interestingly, very few of the Union flags have been found.

Tracking down the diverse and unique histories of Civil War flags involves investigative work that is different for each banner. And considering the hundreds of flags carried by both sides, it is time-consuming work. 

Military historian and flag expert Greg Biggs has been on a one-year assignment with the museum. He began the flag project after Sheila Green, the museum’s Curator of Textiles and Fashion, passed away.

“Her goal was to write the definitive book on Tennessee’s Civil War flags, even if they still existed or not. She had a few chapters already written when she left us,” Biggs says. He is working to complete the book to be titled, Volunteer Banners: The Civil War Flags of Tennessee.

Biggs first got interested in Civil War flags years ago while in a round table group in California. He later worked with noted experts, including the late Howard Madaus and Devereaux Cannon.

The Tennessee collection holds about 66 Civil War flags, the majority of them Confederate, in various states of conservation.  Restoring a flag is very costly, so proceeds from Volunteer Banners will help with conservation.

"No one is certain how many flags saw service since Union regiments carried the national flag as well as regimental colors," according to Biggs. Many flags were replaced after being captured or shot up, with new flags coming from Union supply depots and sometimes from ladies on the home front.

Biggs is intrigued with the unknown, asking the question, “What happened to the Tennessee Union flags?” Only a handful of the estimated 100 Union unit flags from Tennessee have been found.

By scouring through newspapers in the museum archives, Biggs has made some interesting discoveries. One such find was that the regimental flag for Tennessee’s 12th United States Colored Troops (USCT) was painted by black Philadelphia artist David Bustill Bowser.

He was noted for his work on Pennsylvania regimental flags. Because of this discovery Biggs believes that Bowser did some other USCT flags from Tennessee.

Some sections of Tennessee were not quite as Confederate as once thought, Biggs said. He points to a national flag presented by women in Memphis to the 8th Iowa Infantry that was on provost duty there.

Biggs has worked on the Tennessee flag project with museums across the country, including the Iowa Museum of History, which was a big help with the Memphis flag.

Many collectors of these flags have major investments in their collections and are cautious about releasing information about their artifacts.

Biggs assures them, “The book will respect that privacy and we are grateful for their help.”

He asks readers who know the location of Tennessee flags, or who had ancestors who were color bearers in Union Tennessee regiments, to contact the Tennessee State Museum by email at museuminfo@tnmuseum.org.