Civil War

During the Civil War, the Philadelphia Quartermaster's Depot commissioned independent contractors to manufacture the national colors issued to the Union Army, with Philadelphia using a distinctive 34-star double wreath pattern while the depots in New York and Cincinnati issued national colors with squared star constellations. Contractors for these three depots manufactured nearly 2,400 flags, the bulk of the colors issued to the Union Army. A 35-star national flag for the 5th Regiment, Corps d'Afrique, was created in Boston for the newly formed black regiment organized in New Orleans and was based on the Great Star, one of the most revered Stars and Stripes designs. Eventually, the Union Army included more than 100 black regiments of infantry, cavalry, and heavy and light artillery, and more than 200,000 blacks served in the Union Army and Navy, with 31 receiving the newly created Medal of Honor. A 33-star diamond pattern flag continued a variation of the cross or diamond design first seen during the Revolutionary War and became famous through the 20 by 40-foot garrison flag that flew over Fort Sumter during its bombardment by Confederate forces in 1861, an attack that precipitated the Civil War; that Fort Sumter flag was reinstated at the fort on April 14, 1865, the day Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.

Indianapolis city (balance), Indiana · United States