New York Battle Flags

It’s been several years since I’ve highlighted websites that feature the flags of the trans-Mississippi. Since that time some websites have been extensively updated and some new ones have appeared. This series will feature websites of trans-Mississippi State flag collections as well as websites that depict flags of regiments that served in the theater.


The New York Military Museum andVeterans Research Center has constructed a well-organized website with histories of every unit that served in the Civil War plus hundreds of photographs of New York flags. Many people don’t think of New York having much of a connection to the war west of the Mississippi, but soldiers of the 6^th New York Infantry, the 114^th New York Infantry, the 116^th New York Infantry, and the 21^st Independent Battery served in Louisiana for part of the conflict. The website is well worth checking out, and I noticed a couple of colorful posters for sale too.

Another Long March

While reading Little To Eat And Thin Mud To Drink: Letters, Diaries, and Memoirs from the Red River Campaigns, 1863-1864 (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 2007) edited by Gary D. Joiner, I noticed yet another example of hard marching by a unit in the trans-Mississippi.

Private Julius Knapp served in the 116^th New York Volunteer Infantry of the 19^th Army Corps, and he noted that on 22 April 1864, his unit started retreating from near Grand Ecore, Louisiana, at approximately midnight. Knapp wrote that the men kept marching without a break until noon when there was a “dinner” break of one hour. Afterwards, the march resumed and continued until the men arrived near the lower crossing of the Cane River at 11:00 pm. According to Private Knapp this made “’a march of forty five miles with out a hours Sleep and only time enough given us to cook our dinner the longest march in one day ever done by the 19^th Army Corps’” (p. 109). The next day the regiment saw action during the battle of Monett’s Ferry.