Rod Thayer's article in the Spring 1989 issue of THE ZOUAVE provides a concise overview of the history of the Kentucky Brigade. Several additional points concerning the flags carried by the Orphans may, however, be of further interest to readers of THE ZOUAVE. The flag of the 2nd Kentucky illustrated on page 18 of the Spring issue is in fact the flag of Company "G" of the same regiment. Michael Madaus, in "The Battle Flags of the Confederate Army of Tennessee" mentioned this as a possible identification of this flag. Additional support for this supposition is offered by Geoffrey Walden in a recent article published in the Journal of the Confederate Historical Society. Walden describes the regimental flag of the 2nd Kentucky, which was captured along with its owners at Fort Donelson, as an 1861 national flag with fourteen white stars in the obverse canton, nine of the stars arranged in a circle surrounding one central star and with one star in each of the four corners. The reverse side of this flag appeared as shown by flag illustration #1 of this article. The cross in the reverse canton was white and the lettering done in gold paint. The flag was 57" x 64" in size. Walden also provides details on the flag carried by the 6th Kentucky in 1862. This flag, illustrated by Flag #2, had a white border, gold stars, black lettered battle honors, and a yellow lettered unit designation. It measured 59" x 68". In the spring of 1863 the 1861 national flags of the Kentucky Brigade were replaced by the Hardee pattern flags. A music sheet published in early 1864 gives the details for these banners as illustrated by flag #3. The dark blue background, white central disc and battle honors, and black regimental designation were common to all of the Orphan's Hardee flags. In turn, these flags were replaced by Army of Tennessee battle flags in February of 1864. Walden's article also describes what may have been a Kentucky Brigade headquarters flag as illustrated by flag #4. This flag, carried from Corinth in early 1862 until after the fall of Atlanta, was 67" x 76", and had a dark blue field and a red cross with white stars. I hope that this information will prove to be of some interest to anyone who is planning to paint up the Orphans as part of their Rebel army. Back to The Zouave Vol III No. 3 Table of Contents Back to The Zouave List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1989 The American Civil War Society This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com