Rare Civil War U.S. Hospital Flag Donated To Atlanta History Center

By Gordon L. Jones · Originally published May 2016 · p. 8

ATLANTA, Ga.–A rare Civil War U.S. Army field hospital flag has been donated to the Atlanta History Center and placed on exhibit. The flag – one of only about a dozen known to have survived the conflict – was the gift of John and Joyce Schmale of Mahomet, Illinois. Both Union and Confederate armies used bright red or yellow flags to designate field hospitals, enabling stretcher-bearers and ambulance drivers to easily locate them behind the front lines. In January 1864, the U.S. Army issued formal regulations for yellow hospital flags, specifying a contrasting green “H” for “Hospital.” Larger flags of the same design marked the location of 200 permanent hospitals in cities and towns. During the war, U.S. Army surgeons performed some 30,000 emergency amputations, some of which undoubtedly happened under this flag. What made the flag so personally meaningful for the Schmales is the fact they both have medical backgrounds and both have avid interest in Civil War history, especially the history of Civil War flags. The hospital flag now joins a collection of some 11,000 Civil War artifacts at the Atlanta History Center, most of which were assembled by the Beverly DuBose family beginning in the 1950s. “The DuBoses collected for 35 years and never found a hospital flag,” noted Gordon Jones, the Center’s Senior Military Historian and Curator. ”I’ve never even seen one for sale, let alone one in such superb condition.” Prior to being placed on exhibit, the 63-by-46-inch wool bunting flag was treated by textile conservator

Kate R. Daniels before being placed in a custom-made pressure-mount frame. The Plexiglas cover is shielded from ultraviolet light to protect the colors from fading. The flag was made in Portland, Maine, by the banner and sign-painting business of Harrison Bird Brown. Until the Schmales discovered this example, no one knew that Brown had made flags for the Union cause. After the war, Brown went on to become one of the most prolific and famous landscape painters of the late 19th century. Gordon L. Jones Ph.D., is the Senior Military Historian and Curator at the Atlanta History Center, where he has worked since 1991. He is the author of Confederate Odyssey: The George W. Wray Jr. Civil War Collection (University of Georgia Press, 2014).