Heritage, Volume 18, Number 1, Winter 2000 Page: 11
39 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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ing from it and mounting in such a way
that future scholars could easily dismantle
protective frames and gain access to
the surfaces of both sides. For the Texas
collection the new era began in 1992
when Textile Preservation Associates of
Sharpsburg, Maryland, conserved the
San Jacinto battle flag according to the
new standards (see article on page 26).
State curators realized that if the remaining. Individual Texans care deeply for
Texas Historical Commission, they
their flags, and under the leadership of resolved to rescue the flags in the state's
former United States Congressman Mike
collection. Working through the non
Andrews and John Nau, chairman of the profit Friends of the Texas Historical
Conserved Flags of the Texas State Library and Archives
Fig. 5
ing Texas flags were ever to be available
to the public again they would require
the same treatment. Unfortunately, modem
conservation is very expensive, and
the state legislature had little interest in
allocating funds for further preservation.
The story, however, has a happy endFig. 6
By Robert Maberry Jr., Ph.D. (Flag images on page
1 Matamoros Battalion flag. The Matamoros
Battalion participated in the siege and
assault on the Alamo and was annihilated at
the Battle of San Jacinto where Texian forces
captured its flag.
2 Guerrero Battalion flag. The Guerrero
Battalion joined Santa Anna just after the fall
of the Alamo and was part of the army
destroyed at San Jacinto. Recent chemical
analysis revealed that its captured flag is
drenched in blood.
3 Flag of the First Texas Infantry, Hood's
Texas Brigade. This flag sewn from dress silk
and presented to the regiment by Lula
Wigfall, daughter of its first commander, is
one of the great treasures of Texas history. At
the Battle of Antietam on September 17,
1862, during the desperate fighting in Miller's
cornfield the First Texas suffered more than
82 percent casualties - the highest endured
by any unit North or South in the entire war.
That day nine standard bearers fell carrying
the flag. When the last man was killed the flag
was captured and picked up from among the
corpses by a Pennsylvania private.
4 First Texas Infantry, Army of Northern
Virginia pattern battle flag. Confederate
authorities meant this flag to be a replacement
for the Lone Star flag of the First Texas.
The regiment, however, refused to relinquish
the Texas flag and carried both into battle at
Antietam. This flag was also lost in Miller's
cornfield.
5 First Texas Infantry, Army of Northern
Virginia late bunting issue battle flag. The
Richmond government issued this over-sized
flag to the First Texas very late in the war.
Union forces captured it just days before the
surrender at Appomattox.6 Sixth Texas Infantry and Fifteenth
Cavalry (consolidated), Granbury's
Brigade, Hardee Pattern battle
General Pat Cleburne's Division,Fig. 7
Texas
Texas
flag.
whichincluded Granbury's Brigade, was the only
command in the Confederate army authorized
to fly the blue Hardee pattern flag.
Texans carried thig flag through the bloody
carnage at the Battle of Franklin, the defeat
at Nashville, and up until the Army of
Tennessee's final surrender in May 1965.
Captain Mark Kelton hid this flag under his
clothes to prevent its capture.
7 Seventeeth and Eighteenth Texas Cavalry
(dismounted and consolidated) Granbury's
Texas Brigade, Hardee pattern battle flag.
Union forces captured this flag in fierce
hand-to-hand fighting at the battle of Atlanta
on July 22, 1864. Following the war, veterans
of the regiment exerted considerable efforts
to locate the lost flag, and in 1914 the widow
of a Union officer returned it to Texas.
8 Taylor pattern battle flag of unidentified
regiment, Walker's Texas Division. Taylor
battle flags are unusual in that they reverse
the normal colors of the Confederate battle
flag. The inscriptions on this presentation
flag commemorate the battles of Mansfield
and Pleasant Hill where Confederate troops
repulsed a large Union force in Louisiana
near the Red River, saving East Texas from
invasion. Walker's Division, which fought
mostly in Louisiana and Arkansas, was the
largest formation of Texas troops to serve
during the war.
9 Gould's Sixth Texas Cavalry Battalion,
Confederate Stars and Bars variant. This
imaginative, homespun variant of the
Confederate First National pattern flag is
hand-sewn cotton pieced together like a
quilt. Gould's Battalion was dismounted soon
after its formation in 1862 and serving as
infantry saw much action along the Red River.
After the war, its commander Robert S.
Gould, a noted jurist, became chief justice of
the Texas Supreme Court and was one of the
two original faculty members of the
University of Texas law school.HERITAGE * 11 WINTER 2000
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
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Texas Historical Foundation. Heritage, Volume 18, Number 1, Winter 2000, periodical, Winter 2000; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth45388/m1/11/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Foundation.