Flag
The Missouri State Guard did not have an official flag until MSG General Sterling Price ordered on June 5, 1861,
"III. Each regiment will adopt the State flag, made of blue merino, 6 by 5 feet, with the Missouri coat-of-arms in gold gilt on each side. Each mounted company will have a guidon, the flag of which will be of white merino, 3 by 2½ feet, with the letters M.S.G. in gilt on each side."
Interestingly, a number of Missouri (Federal) volunteer regiments were issued a flag of an almost identical pattern: a blue flag, with the Missouri state arms in gold. This is an example of the long-running struggle between Missouri's (post-Jun 17, 1861) Unionist government in Jefferson City and Claiborne Fox Jackson's (and later Thomas C. Reynolds') secessionist government-in-exile for control of symbols of Missouri governmental legitimacy.
Read more about this topic: Missouri State Guard
Famous quotes containing the word flag:
“There’s an enduring American compulsion to be on the side of the angels. Expediency alone has never been an adequate American reason for doing anything. When actions are judged, they go before the bar of God, where Mom and the Flag closely flank His presence.”
—Jonathan Raban (b. 1942)
“—Here, the flag snaps in the glare and silence
Of the unbroken ice. I stand here,
The dogs bark, my beard is black, and I stare
At the North Pole. . .
And now what? Why, go back.
Turn as I please, my step is to the south.”
—Randall Jarrell (1914–1965)
“Swift blazing flag of the regiment,
Eagle with crest of red and gold,
These men were born to drill and die.
Point for them the virtue of slaughter,
Make plain to them the excellence of killing
And a field where a thousand corpses lie.”
—Stephen Crane (1871–1900)