Colors - Importance of the Regiments' Colors

"Is it to be wondered at, that the surviving comrades of these brave and loyal men look upon the glorious old worn and tattered banner as something almost sacred?" This quote was from a member of the 148th at one of the many post-war reunions the regiment held, in Shortsville, New York. It tends to show how deep the feelings ran of what the "colors" of a regiment meant to the men who followed these banners into battle.

Many of the men who enlisted to fight in the Civil War, organized themselves into small "platoons" of men from a particular town or village. Before these men traveled to a larger town/city to officially enlist in the war, they would give there little platoons names such as "the Keuka Rifles." These men would then, as a group, "enlist" in a regiment that was designated by the state that they lived in, according to quotas the state had to meet as per the federal government, as well as the particular senate/congressional district in which the regiment was coming together. The various "platoons" would be put together by the officers that would lead the regiment, into "companies" which usually constituted a total of 100 men. Typically, the companies were designated by letters such as "A," "B," "C," etc., usually through the letter "K," and would be grouped into those letters on a larger scale as to what towns or cities the men were from; generally, communities that were located physically close to each other or towns in a particular county. An example would be that for the 148th, the men of company B were from the Yates County towns/villages of Dundee, Starkey, Barrington, and Milo.

Presentation of its colors to a newly formed regiment, about to head off to fight in the war, usually was a big deal. Speeches would be made by prominent national,state, and/or local politicians, military officers or any person that symbolized the patriotism to be exemplified by the regiment as they left to restore the union. During the presentation, the regiment would receive a pair of colors. The first were the national colors based on the red, white, and blue stars and stripes. The second were the regimental colors which were blue silk and decorated with hand-painted arms of the United States or the state's coat of arms. Many times, these flags would be hand sewn by the women of the area the regiment was from.

These items came together into why a regiment's colors were so important to the men. Honor and dignity was still highly followed at this time, and the last thing the men of a regiment wanted to do was to disgrace its colors on the field of battle by turning their backs on the enemy and running or, the worst of all, having their colors fall into the hands of the enemy. Besides symbolism, the colors also played a crucial role on the field of battle. Many times, they would be used to communicate to the soldiers on the battlefield, their bright colors being the only thing a solider could see on the smoke-filled killing plains of a Civil War Battlefield. The men would look to their flag to see if they should advance, maintain their ground, or retreat.