Polk's Corps Flag

The battle flag devised by Major-General Leonidas Polk was initially made completely of silk, 4 feet on the hoist by 7.5 to 8 feet on the fly. Its design consisted of a medium blue field quartered by a red St. George's cross (bars that crossed the field horizontally and vertically), inserted directly into the blue field. This 11" wide cross bore thirteen white 5-pointed stars, each about 7 ½" to 8" in diameter, three on each arm, and one in the center of the cross. Since these flags bore thirteen stars, it is thought that their manufacture post-dated Kentucky's admission into the Confederacy in early December 1861.

The flags themselves were evidently made in Memphis, Tennessee. On 30 January 1862, forty-five of these flags (each costing $15.00) were shipped from Memphis to Polk's quartermaster at Columbus. These flags were distributed to the three "divisions" and the separate brigade, totaling an aggregate of 28 infantry regiments, 10 artillery companies or batteries, and six cavalry commands of the 1st Grand Division. Although General Beauregard had ordered a new set of Army of Northern Virginia battle flags for Polk's "Corps" in March of 1862 to replace the distinctive blue flags, they did not arrive in time for the battle of Shiloh, and Polk's Corps accordingly continued to carry their blue "Polk's Corps" battle flags through that engagement.

 

Historial Flags of Dixie eCards - Polk's Corps Flag

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Polk's Corps Flag


Shown above is THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH's "Anglican Temperance Flag," which is found within the halls of scholarship in Jesse Ball duPont Library.  Beloved Polk's Corps flags seen about Sewanee by University students remind them of this Mother Flag and incline them back into the library to be near its power.  While in the duPont Library learning history, students are not in fraternity houses drinking booze, and thus Bishop-General Leonidas Polk's Anglican inspiration for his Confederate corps flag promotes temperance at the expense of dissipation.

http://www.leonidaspolk.org/

Identified as the Florida Flag from Shiloh- Jesse Ball duPont Library, THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH, Sewanee, Tennessee (This is not from a Florida unit. This is an example of the first pattern of the Polk Corps flags, 45 of which were made in Memphis, TN. January, 1862. They were first issued to the Grand Division at Columbus, KY in early February. We do not know what unit it is from but it is definitely not from a FL unit as there were none at Columbus, KY.  -Greg Biggs, 6/21/2004, Flags Of The Confederacy, www.confederateflags.org, page
http://www.confederateflags.org/army/FOTCaotm.htm#polk.)

Historial Flags of Dixie eCards - Polk's Corps Flag1st Arkansas Cavalry- Old State House Museum, Little Rock, Arkansas (Not a Polk's Corps flag at all - but a variant of a pattern issued in the Trans-Mississippi theater.  -Greg Biggs, 6/21/04)


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Historial Flags of Dixie eCards - Polk's Corps Flag1st Tennessee- Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, Tennessee (Polk's Corps, second issue)

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Historial Flags of Dixie eCards - Polk's Corps Flag1st or 15th Tennessee- on loan from Wisconsin, Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, Tennessee (Polk's Corps second issue.  Definitely not the flag of the 1st Tennessee lost at Perryville. Post-war reunion veteran accounts state that this flag is from some other regiment of Maney's TN Brigade, as their actual flag was shot to shreds in that battle and was in the hands of a unit color bearer after the war. Probably the flag of either the 6th or 9th Tennessee Infantry.  -Greg Biggs, 6/21/04)

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  Reference web-site: CSA Flags (http://www.csaflags.com)

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