Whose Flag Did He Capture?

Pvt. Richard Taylor, Co E, 18th Indiana Volunteer Infantry was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor on November 21,1864 for the capture of a Confederate battle flag during the Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia on October 19,1864.

The citation reads only "Capture of flag", the shortest citation on record, but one shared by 90 other recipients of the Medal of Honor.

No where in the Official Records does it state from which Confederate unit the flag was captured, leading to speculation that he, an Alabama born soldier, might have captured the flag of one of the five Alabama regiments in that battle. (The 3,5,6,12, and 61 Infantry regiments, known as Battle's Brigade, Ramseur's Division, Army of the Valley under Maj General Jubal Early.)

After review of recent publications, including a reprint of a 1905 publication titled "The Returned Battle Flags," a souvenir booklet published in 1905 for the Confederate Veterans at their reunion in Louisville, Kentucky, and a booklet published by the Museum of the Confederacy," Colours of the Gray, An Illustrated Index of Wartime Flags From the Museum of the Confederacy's Collection," plus Thomas A. Lewis's book "The Guns of Cedar Creek" it becomes clear that it is only remotely possible that the flag captured by Richard Taylor could have been captured from an Alabama regiment.

Confederate battle flags captured by Union forces were customarily forwarded to the War Department, with information including the unit from whom captured and the name of the soldier capturing it and any other circumstance peculiar to its capture.

In the case at point there were 13 Confederate battle flags captured during the Battle of Cedar Creek. On October 20 the commander of the victorious Union forces, Maj General Philip H. Sheridan, sent his commander of the 3rd Division of Cavalry, Brig General George A. Custer, to Washington with the men who had captured them. According to Lewis, "...He draped 10 of the flags on the locomotive that pulled his train into the city. He marched his detail through the streets to the War Department while he dashed off to get his wife; this was too good for her to miss...."

Thus one would expect to find, in the listing of returned flags, a flag from an Alabama regiment. There are none so identified.

The flag that was captured by Richard Taylor and listed on the War Department inventory was of the First National Pattern, thirteen six-pointed stars, (25X47). It now resides in the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia, being one of the returned flags, unidentifiable to a specific state.

(The First National flag had a field of one stripe between two red stripes, and a blue canton with anywhere from 7 to 13 stars, and was carried throughout the war by various units.) It was commonly known as the "Stars and Bars."

Lastly, when one considers the relative positions of Richard Taylor's 18^th Indiana Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade, 2nd Division, XIX Army Corps and Battle's Brigade, Ramseur's Division, Army of the Valley on the afternoon of October 19, 1864, when Sheridan's counter-attack to re-take the ground Confederates had taken during their early morning surprise attack routed the Confederate army, the 18th Indiana was on the Union right while the Alabama regiments were on the Confederate right, i.e., on opposite ends of a battle line some 2 miles long. It therefore would be unlikely that they would have confronted each other during the battle, thus leaving no opportunity for a flag to be captured.

In conclusion, it may never be known which unit surrendered its flag to Richard Taylor but its most unlikely it was an Alabama regiment!