Tag Archives: Battle Flags

Trained, Dressed, Armed, and Headed for the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War (September 19-20, 1861)

Private Abraham Nicholas Wolf, Company B, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, circa 1861 (public domain).

Some were middle-aged men, hardened by what they had seen, heard and endured as United States Army soldiers during the Mexican-American War or the opening months of the American Civil War. Far more were younger adults who had received some degree of “hands-on” experience with military protocols and the use of muskets or rifles as members of local militia units that had been operating in their hometowns for decades. A shocking number, however, were still baby-faced teenagers or even middle school-aged boys who were still too young to grow respectable beards, had no concept of the fragility of life (or the horrors that awaited them) and had only just figured out how to load and aim a weapon.

They were members of the recently-formed 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry and they had only just recently completed their basic training in Hardee’s light infantry tactics at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, which had taken place in three phases according to their manual of instruction:

Part One:

  • Lesson 1: Position of the soldier without arms: Eyes right, left and front.
  • Lesson 2: Facings.
  • Lesson 3: Principles of the direct step in in common and quick time.
  • Lesson 4: Principles of the direct step in double quick time and the run.

Part Two:

  • Lesson 1: Principles of shouldered arms.
  • Lesson 2: Manual of arms.
  • Lesson 3: To load in four times, and at will.
  • Lesson 4: Firings, direct, oblique, by file, and by rank.
  • Lesson 5: To fire and load, kneeling and lying.
  • Lesson 6: Bayonet exercise.

Part Three:

  • Lesson 1: Union of eight or twelve men for instruction in the principles of alignment.
  • Lesson 2: The direct march, the oblique march, and the different steps.
  • Lesson 3: The march by the flank.
  • Lesson 4: Principles of wheeling and change of direction.
  • Lesson 5: Long marches in double quick time, and the run, with arms and knapsacks.

The “basic math” of that training was simple: those men who had mustered in for duty in early August had made it through more of those lessons than those who had only just mustered in mid-September — and there were simply not enough grains of sand left in “the nation’s hourglass” for company captains to bring the newest of the “newbies” up to speed.

Dressed for Success — Army Style

First Lieutenant Henry A. Haltiman, Sr., Company B, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, Charleston, South Carolina, 1865, public domain).

Trained as well as could be expected, given the national emergency that was threatening to tear the United States apart, the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers were issued: “1 light blue overcoat, 1 extra good blouse, 1 pair dark pantaloons, 2 white flannel shirts, 2 pair drawers, 2 pair socks, 1 pair shoes, 1 cap, 1 knapsack (suspended from shoulder), 1 haversack (suspended from waist), 1 canteen,” Mississippi rifles, and ammunition on September 19, 1861, according to historian Lewis Schmidt. The next day, they were gathered together in formation, presented with the regiment’s First State Color (battle flag) by Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin, and were marched to the railroad station in Harrisburg, where they hopped aboard a train and headed for the nation’s capital. Henry D. Wharton, a field musician with the 47th Pennsylvania’s C Company, who would function as the nineteenth-century equivalent of an “embedded reporter” for The Sunbury American throughout the war, sent one of his first dispatches on September 22:

“After a tedious ride we have, at last, safely arrived at the City of ‘magnificent distances.’ We left Harrisburg on Friday last at 1 o’clock A.M. and reached this camp yesterday (Saturday) at 4 P.M., as tired and worn out a sett [sic] of mortals as can possibly exist. On arriving at Washington we were marched to the ‘Soldiers Retreat,’ a building purposely erected for the benefit of the soldier, where every comfort is extended to him and the wants of the ‘inner man’ supplied.

After partaking of refreshments we were ordered into line and marched, about three miles, to this camp. So tired were the men, that on marching out, some gave out, and had to leave the ranks, but J. Boulton Young, our ‘little Zouave,’ stood it bravely, and acted like a veteran. So small a drummer is scarcely seen in the army, and on the march through Washington he was twice the recipient of three cheers.

We were reviewed by Gen. McClellan yesterday [21 September 1861] without our knowing it. All along the march we noticed a considerable number of officers, both mounted and on foot; the horse of one of the officers was so beautiful that he was noticed by the whole regiment, in fact, so wrapt [sic] up were they in the horse, the rider wasn’t noticed, and the boys were considerably mortified this morning on dis-covering they had missed the sight of, and the neglect of not saluting the soldier next in command to Gen. Scott.

Col. Good, who has command of our regiment, is an excellent man and a splendid soldier. He is a man of very few words, and is continually attending to his duties and the wants of the Regiment.

…. Our Regiment will now be put to hard work … and the boys expect and hope an occasional ‘pop’ at the enemy.”

And so it began — the history-making journey of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry.

 

Sources:

  1. Bates, Samuel P., in History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, vol. 1. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869.
  2. Bordewich, Fergus M. “Fort Sumter: The Civil War Begins,” in Smithsonian Magazine, April 2011. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
  3. “Camp Curtin Historical Marker,” in ExplorePAhistory.com. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, retrieved online July 25, 2022.
  4. Dyer, Frederick H. A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, p. 1589. Des Moines, Iowa: The Dyer Publishing Company, 1908.
  5. “Florida’s Role in the Civil War: ‘Supplier of the Confederacy.’” Tampa, Florida: Florida Center for Instructional Technology, University of South Florida (College of Education), retrieved online January 15, 2020.
  6. Gobin, John Peter Shindel. Personal Letters, 1861-1865. Northumberland, Pennsylvania: Personal Collection of John Deppen.
  7. Grodzins, Dean and David Moss. “The U.S. Secession Crisis as a Breakdown of Democracy,” in When Democracy Breaks: Studies in Democratic Erosion and Collapse, from Ancient Athens to the Present Day (chapter 3). New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 2024.
  8. “History of Camp Curtin.” Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Camp Curtin Historical Society, retrieved online July 25, 2022.
  9. Huntington, Tom. Pennsylvania Civil War Trails: The Guide to Battle Sites, Monuments, Museums and Towns, pp. 65-66. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 2007; Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, 2007.
  10. Irwin, Richard Bache. History of the Nineteenth Army Corps. New York, New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1893.
  11. Keener-Farley, Lawrence and James Schmick. Civil War Harrisburg: A Guide to Capital Area Sites, Incidents and Personalities, second edition. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Camp Curtin Historical Society, 2008.
  12. Miller, William J. The Training of an Army: Camp Curtin and the North’s Civil War. Shippensburg, Pennsylvania: White Mane Publishing, 1990.
  13. “Roster of the 47th P. V. Inf.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Morning Call, October 26, 1930.
  14. Schmidt, Lewis G. A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Self-published, 1986.
  15. Scott, Robert N. The War of War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, series I, vol. XXXIV, part II: “Correspondence, etc.-Union,” Chapter XLVI: “Louisiana and the Trans-Mississippi,” p. 199. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1891.
  16. “The History of the Forty-Seventh Regt. P. V.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Lehigh Register, July 20, 1870.
  17. Wharton, Henry D. “Letters from the Sunbury Guards.” Sunbury, Pennsylvania: The Sunbury American, 1861-1866.

 

Flag Days: The History of One Regiment’s Battle Flags

Cared for by archivists of the Pennsylvania Capitol Preservation Committee in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the two battle flags that were carried by the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry during its tenure of service in the American Civil War were known as the First and Second State Colors.

First State Color

The First State Color of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was presented to the regiment by Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin on September 20, 1861, and was officially retired on May 11, 1865 (source: Pennsylvania Capitol Preservation Committee, 1985.057, Evans and Hassall, v1p126).

Presented to the regiment by Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Gregg Curtin in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on September 20, 1861, the First State Color of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was manufactured by Evans and Hassall of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to the September 17, 1861 edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper:

Under an act of the Legislature, passed during the extra session of 1861, the Governor of the State was authorized to purchase stands of colors for the several regiments of Pennsylvania. — Twelve of these have been completed, marked with the appropriate numbers of the regiments, and sent to Gov. Curtin. We have been shown one of these new standards. It bore upon it the Stars and Stripes, with the coat of Arms of Pennsylvania exquisitely painted on the blue field, and surrounded by the thirty-four Stars. On the central stripe the number of the regiment was emblazoned. The material is rich, heavy and lustrous silk. The sunlight never flashed on a more beautiful ensign…. The trimmings of the flags are very handsome. The work was completed by Messrs. Evans & Hassall, No. 51 S. Fourth Street.

The First State Color was the battle flag that was initially cared for and carried by the 47th Pennsylvania’s first color bearer, Sergeant Benjamin Walls, as the regiment took part in multiple military engagements, including the:

The First State Color was then carried by Sergeant William Pyers in subsequent military engagements, including the:

Subsequently carried by a third regimental color bearer, the First State Color was also the flag carried by the regiment during the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry’s defense of Washington, D.C., following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln (beginning mid-April 1865 and lasting until the First State Color was officially retired on May 11, 1865).

Second State Color

Second State Color, 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, presented to the regiment on March 7, 1865, this battle flag documents the regiment’s major engagements (source: Pennsylvania Capitol Preservation Committee, 1985.058, Horstmann Brothers and Company, v1p127).

The Second State Color of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was the battle flag that was carried by the regiment’s color-bearer as the 47th Pennsylvania marched through the streets of Washington, D.C. during the Grand Review of the National Armies on May 23, 1865, and as it marched into Savannah, Georgia in early June 1865 and into Charleston, South Carolina in July of that same year (while stationed in both cities on provost duty during the Reconstruction Era).

Presented to Captain Daniel Oyster on March 7, 1865, the commanding officer of the 47th Pennsylvania’s C Company (the regiment’s color guard unit), while Captain Oyster was at home in Sunbury, Pennsylvania on a thirty-day military furlough (after having been wounded in action twice during Sheridan’s 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign), it had been shipped to Sunbury in February by its manufacturer, Horstmann Brothers & Company of Philadelphia. According to archivists at the American History Museum in Washington, D.C.:

“William Hortsmann [sic, “Horstmann”], born in Germany, emigrated to the United States and established himself as a maker of fringe, laces, and trimmings in Philadelphia, in 1815. William Horstmann & Sons were located at North Third Street between 1830 and 1857, manufacturing and importing everything from textiles and trimmings to military goods including drums, pistols, and swords. As the company expanded, Horstmann & Sons moved the factory to 5th and Cherry Streets and their storefront to 2223 Chestnut Street. Later the company would grow to two stores in New York and an agency in Paris. William Horstmann retired from the company in 1845, and his sons, William and Sigmund continued the family business until 1872.”

Sources:

  1. “47th Infantry,” in “Pennsylvania Civil War Battle Flags.” Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Capitol Preservation Committee, retrieved online June 3, 2026.
  2. “A Handsome Flag.” Sunbury, Pennsylvania: The Sunbury American, March 11, 1865.
  3. Bates, Samuel P., in History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, vol. 1. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869.
  4. “Flags for Pennsylvania Regiments.” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 17, 1861.
  5. “Historical Listing of Pennsylvania Civil War Color Bearers,” in “Pennsylvania Civil War Battle Flags.” Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Capitol Preservation Committee, retrieved online June 3, 2026.
  6. “Horstmann Brothers & Co. Military Trumpet.” Washington, D.C.: American History Museum, Smithsonian Institute, retrieved online June 3, 2026.
  7. Schmidt, Lewis G. A Civil War History of the 47th Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Self-published, 1986.
  8. “The History of the Forty-Seventh Regt. P. V.” Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Lehigh Register, July 20, 1870.