U.S. Army Red Over White Swallowtail Pattern 1833 - Model 1861.
The Howard Michael Madaus sub-collection of Civil War Military Flags was assembled from a variety of sources over a thirty year period of collecting (1970-2000) before being acquired by the Zaricor Collection in 2000. The sub-collection attempts to present an example of each of the major types of depot contractor regulation flags and colors carried by Union forces at the basic unit level, i.e. regiment, battalion, company, and battery, as well as the types of general military flags.

This sub-collection which was added to the Zaricor Civil War collection constitutes the largest and (while not complete) most comprehensive collection of the military flags carried by the Union Army during the Civil War outside of state repositories designated by the War Department for the disposition of these flags after the War, or in public museum collections. In fact this private collection is larger and more comprehensive than many of the public museum collections in the United States.

The field is cut swallowtail and is composed of two silk bars, the top bar red and the bottom bar white. The upper bar bears white painted Roman letters "U.S." over the abbreviation "Comp." The lower (white) bar bears the red painted Roman letters "CAVALRY." The flag was intended to be attached to a staff by means of a sleeve, formed by doubling over and sewing the forward most 1.5 inches of the flag.

Guidons of this pattern were provided by the U.S. Quartermaster's Department in this form when issued at the beginning of the American Civil War. It was the responsibility of the receiving officer to add the company letter to the top bar and the regimental designation above "CAVALRY." on the lower bar. This Guidon never received the finishing designations. Most of the Guidons in stock in 1862 were modified to "Stars & Stripes" pattern Guidons in February of 1862; somehow this one survived.

ZFC Significant Flag
Item is Framed

Provenance:
• Made in Philadelphia, PA 1861.
• Acquired by Marcus Chernoff, until 1974.
• Purchased by Howard Michael Madaus , 1974.
• Madaus Flag Collection, until 2000.
• Acquired by Zaricor Flag Collection by Private Sale from the Madaus Flag Collection, 2000



Sources:


Madaus, Howard M.- Whitney Smith, The American Flag: Two Centuries of Concord and Conflict, VZ Publications, Santa Cruz, 2006.

US Army Quartermaster General, Flags of the Army of the United States carried during the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865, to designate the headquarters of the different armies, army corps, divisions and brigades, Washington, D.C., 1887.

Todd, Frederick P., American Military Equipage 1851-1872, Volume 2, Providence, The Company of Military Historians, 1977.

Woodhead, Henry, ed., Flags, Echoes of Glory: Arms and Equipment of The Union, New York, Time Life Books, 1998,

Madaus, Howard M., correspondence to Ben Zaricor, 29 March 2000, Zaricor Flag Collection Archives.

Image Credits:
Zaricor Flag Collection