Cavalry Corps and Headquarters Flags Army of the Cumberland 15mm American Civil War Flags HI127

Transcription

1 Cavalry Corps and Headquarters Flags Army of the Cumberland 15mm American Civil War Flags HI127 Brad Butkovich Historic Imagination

2 Printing For best results, print on the highest quality white paper. The whiter the paper, the better. The qualities of printers differ, so there may be some variations in size and color on different printers. Testing was done on laser and ink-jet printers, with excellent results from both. Critically Important: Make sure when you print, you set the Page Scaling on your printer settings to None. If you do not, it will print the flags smaller than intended. Cutting Good results can be achieved with scissors, but the best method is to use a hobby knife. You will need a new sharp blade, a cutting matt, and a straight edge (preferably metal). Place the sheet of paper on the cutting matt. Align the straight edge over the flag, so that it covers the flag itself. Move the straight edge until the flag just disappears. Make a cut. Move the straight edge over the next side of the flag and continue. Instructions edge over the flag, move it until only the line is visible. Cut just inside the line, leaving only the white flag. Cut just inside the black border. Flags with fringe should have the cut outs above and below the wood section removed. If there is no wood section, the flag attaches to the flagpole by a sleeve. Remove the cut-outs. The fringe would not extend around the flagpole. Gluing Carefully align the outer corners of the flag and fold it in half. Carefully brush PVA glue (white glue) on one side. Place the flag pole in the fold, and push the two halves of the flag together. Make sure you align the outside corners again so that the flag remains symmetrical. Use tweezers or your fingernails to pinch the flag tightly around the flag pole. Place straight edge over flag and move from the inside out to cut. Flags with white edges have a 1 pixel line to mark the border. With the straight Creases and waves can be made immediately while the glue is still wet. Bend the flag around a paintbrush or similar pole. Before getting started

3 consider practicing gluing the flags and making the folds with pieces of blank white paper. Finishing When dry, paint the brown colored wood area of the flag to match the color you painted the flagpole on the miniature. Be careful not to over paint the thin white edge that represents the thin strip of fabric the grommets are attached to. Finally, paint the white edges of the paper to match the colors on the front of the flag. The best part is, if you make a mistake, just print the page again and start over!

4 Cavalry Corps Army of the Cumberland On April 25 th, 1863 General Orders No. 91 set a new system of flags for the Army of the Cumberland. The headquarters flag of the Department was a National flag, six feet by five feet. A golden eagle, two feet from wingtip to wingtip, was placed in the Union below the stars. The headquarters flag of the Cavalry Corps was a flag 4 feet on the hoist (along the staff) and 6 feet along the fly. The flag was divided into three horizontal bars; blue white and red with blue along the staff. The division flags were the same size as the corps flag. Eighteen inch black stars centered two inches from and along the staff represented the number of the division. The brigade flags were the same as the division flags, but white numbers written in the stars indicted the number of the brigade. The corps would have carried these flags into battle at Chickamauga and Chattanooga. General Orders No. 62 issued on April 26 th, 1864 set the system of designating flags for the Army of the Cumberland before the campaign for Atlanta. The new headquarters flag was five feet square and fringed. The surviving example has the eagle outside and next to the union. The letters D.C. are in the union below the stars. The flag is fringed, but the fringe does not extend along the top of the blue union. The headquarters flag of the Cavalry Corps remained essentially the same, but the new flag added yellow crossed sabers and fringe. The division flags were changed. For the 1 st Division, the flag was white with red crossed sabers, and the numeral 1 in blue centered on the sabers. The 2 nd Division flag was blue with white crossed sabers, and the numeral 2 in red centered on the sabers. The 3 rd Division flag was white with blue crossed sabers, and the numeral 2 in red centered on the sabers. The brigade flags were triangular pennants, following the color scheme of its division. The first brigade was plain with crossed sabers in the middle. The second brigade flags had a stripe along the hoist near the staff. The third brigade the stripe around all three sides. The three armies that marched into Georgia toward Atlanta were part of the Military Division of the Mississippi, which encompassed all of the Union forces west of the Appalachian and east of the Mississippi River. The first flag of the department, which accompanied its commander, Major General William Tecumseh Sherman in the field, was a plain yellow flag five feet square. Sometime in early 1865, probably before the onset of the march into the Carolinas, the symbols of each of the corps in the Division were placed on the flag in red.

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