Regimental colour

“ In the main these emblems follow the rules as we have given them when dealing with the home forces. Each regimental colour, for instance, bears a central crimson badge bearing an appropriate device, number or title, and the whole is surmounted by the usual imperial crown. Surrounding this is the regulation union wreath composed of roses, thistles and shamrocks, whilst honorary distinctions are arranged upon a circular laurel wreath, or, when few in number, on either side of the union 116sprays. ”

“ Lieutenant Kirby was mortally wounded in this advance, while gallantly waving the Queen’s colour which he had carried throughout the action. On his fall, Sergeant Reid of the grenadier company seized the colour and carried it for some distance, when assistant-surgeon M’Master took it from him, and carried it up to near the Residency gate, where he handed it over to Colour-sergeant Christie, by whom it was brought into the Residency. The regimental colour was carried throughout the day by Ensign Tweedie, 4th Bengal Native Infantry, who was attached to the regiment. ”

“ The King’s colours are Union flags with central badges and the regimental colours depend for their hue upon the facings of the uniforms. The union wreaths, however, are not always of the strict standard pattern, though they vary but slightly; also, Arabic numerals are often used instead of Roman numerals to give the regimental number. In a few cases, a complete departure has been made from the regulation pattern in the case of certain regimental colours. ”

“ Their appropriate motto, Ubique, is borne on their appointments. None of the Volunteer regiments carries colours.
The queen's and regimental colours always parade with the regiment. On march they are cased, but they are always uncased when carried into action.
For military authorities "when embarked in boats or other vessels," there is, as we have seen, a special flag. It is the Union with the royal initials in the centre on a blue circle, surrounded by a green garland, and surmounted by the imperial crown. ”

“ The old soldier rallied to the colours as a matter of habit in the confusion of battle, and the capture or the loss of a colour has always been considered a special event, glorious or the reverse, in the history of a regiment, the importance of this being chiefly sentimental, but having as a very real background the fact that, if its colour was lost, a regiment was to all intents and purposes dissolved and dispersed. ”

“ At this period Scottish forces favoured flags bearing a large St. Andrew’s Cross, in the upper triangle of which a Roman numeral was placed to denote the owner’s rank.
In 1661, under the date of February 13th, what was probably the first royal warrant to control regimental colours, was issued by the Earl of Sandwich, Master of the Great Wardrobe. ”

“ By moving accidents bMost disastrous chances,
By moving accidents by flood and field,
By hair-breadth scapes i’the imminent deadly breach.
One curious circumstance is on record. We all know that regimental colours are consecrated, and generally find their last home in the aisles of a cathedral, or in the Hall of Chelsea: but in 1763, the colours of the 25th Regiment, then commanded by Lord W. Lennox, having been riddled with shot, at Minden, and hanging in mere strips from the staff, were interred in Newcastle-on-Tyne, with military honours. ”

“ Each battalion of an infantry regiment has its own colour, which is carried by a non-commissioned officer, and guarded as usual by a colour party. The colour is fastened to the stave by silver nails, and the ceremony of driving the first nail into the stake of a new colour is one of great solemnity. ”

“ The conception of the colour as the emblem of union, the rallying-point, of the regiment has been mentioned above. Many hold that such a rallying-point is more than ever required in the modern guerre de masses, when a national short-service army is collected in all possible strength on the decisive battle-field, and that scarcely any risks or loss of life would be disproportionate to the advantages gained by the presence of the colours. There is further a most important factor in the problem, which has only arisen in recent years through modern perfection in armament. ”

“ It so chanced that, on our way up Broadway, an hour after, we met that very regiment marching down with its colors flying; and we observed that those colors were nearly new. Indeed, there is such a propensity in the public to present colors to popular regiments, that some of them have as many as five stands, of various degrees of splendor. There is nothing about which Councilmen need feel so little anxiety as a deficiency in the supply of regimental colors. ”

“ When starting upon their desperate mission, Colonel Stafford of the First Regiment in turning over the regimental colors to the color guard, made a brief and patriotic address, closing in the words:
“Color Guard: Protect, defend, die for, but do not surrender these colors.” The gallant flag-sergeant, Plancianos, taking them replied: “Colonel: I will bring back these colors to you in honor, or report to God the reason why.” ”

“ The fog made the clothes of the men of the column in the roadway seem of a luminous quality. It imparted to the heavy infantry overcoats a new colour, a kind of blue which was so pale that a regiment might have been merely a long, low shadow in the mist. ”

“ Red and yellow being, as we have stated, the royal livery of Scotland, the facings of Scottish regiments have generally been of the latter colour, and many that now wear blue, had yellow when first embodied. ”

“ Regiments with blue facings are the 1st, 4th, 6th, 7th, 13th, 18th, 21st, 23rd, 25th, etc., while buff is found in the 2nd, 3rd, 14th, 22nd, 27th, 31st, 40th, etc. Amongst the regiments with yellow facings are the 9th, 10th, 12th, 15th, 16th, 20th, 26th, 28th, 29th, 30th, 34th, 37th, 38th, etc. White is met with in the 17th, 32nd, 41st, 43rd, 47th, 59th, 65th. Red is not so common, since the colour is that of the tunic ordinarily, but we see it in the 33rd, 48th, and 76th. ”

“ The whole infantry of the East India Company wore the national colour, and it is greatly to be regretted that, on the commencement of our Volunteer movement, the Government did not enforce the adoption of scarlet, instead of permitting the endless varieties of silly colours and costumes now worn by many corps throughout the United Kingdom.
The statistics of European wars show us that the French, who are clad in blue, suffered a greater loss in proportion than the British, who wear red, when under fire. ”

“ The [9] colours are usually intrusted to one or two subalterns and several sergeants, who form a sort of guard of honour over them, and are held responsible for their safety. When they are in danger the bravest men in the regiment rally round them, and it is held unworthy not to follow them wherever they are seen. They are the same to our soldiers as the white plume of Henry of Navarre was to his men, or the bronze eagles to Rome’s Tenth Legion. Knowing this, officers have sometimes thrown the colours into the very midst of the enemy, sure that their men would die rather than lose them. ”

“ Until the reign of Her present Majesty, red was worn by all the drummers and buglers of the regiment of Artillery; but although, from the earliest period, it was deemed the great national colour of our forces, it is somewhat remarkable that it was not adopted by the English or Irish Militia, until the year 1759, and a song of that period begins:—
"Ye mounseers, give ear, we have nothing to fear,
For the Militia are now clothed in RED, Sirs!
They have hearts that are stout and will never give out,
With Rockingham bold at their head, sirs! ”

“ The colored regiments of immunes, so called, raised for this war, have turned out, so far as can be judged from their camp life (as none of them have been in any actual campaign) , very satisfactory. The regular colored regiments won golden opinions in battle. The experiment of having so many colored officers has not yet shown its full results. Certainly we should [pg 283] have the best obtainable officers for our volunteers, and therefore some such men as Colonel Young, who is a graduate of the Military Academy at West Point, whether white or black, must be sought for. ”

“ In 1881, revised Army Regulations included the results of the Hancock Board and reaffirmed the policy of inscribing battles on national colors. OTAG, however, was not authorized to resume publishing a list of battles in the register. d. By 1890, many units claimed so many battles that they could not all be inscribed on their colors. To help remedy this situation, the War Department directed that regimental honors be engraved on silver rings (later called silver bands) that would be placed on the staff of the regimental colors. ”

“ An infantry review is rather a dull sight, but this was striking, for the Sepoys seem to me to be much finer soldiers than our people, partly from being so tall and upright, and then that I am convinced that brown is the natural colour for man—black and white are unnatural deviations, and look shocking. ”

“ At the Restoration, when forces were established in England and Scotland, each country having its separate guards, line, and artillery, scarlet was the colour almost uniformly adopted, save in one instance, when the King clothed in blue, faced with red, the Royal Regiment of English Horse Guards, which was embodied on the 26th August, 1661, under Aubrey, Earl of Oxford. These colours it still retains ”

“ The red uniform of the British Army was adopted simply from the circumstance, that it was the royal colour of the kingdoms of England and Scotland, centuries before the union of the crowns or of the countries; red and blue being the royal livery of England, red and yellow the royal livery of Scotland. In the latter country, red has ever been the judicial colour, worn by the Lords of Council and Session, the magistrates of Edinburgh and other cities, as well as by the students of some of the universities. ”

“ The presentation of colours to a regiment is always an imposing ceremony, as with prayer of consecration, martial music, and stirring address they are delivered into its custody, but the bestowal of the old colours in some honoured place of safe keeping is yet more impressive. ”

“ A survival of this ancient custom exists to this day in our British military service, both in the Colonial and Imperial forces. Rifle regiments do not carry "colours," but all infantry regiments are entitled, [Pg 40] upon receiving the royal warrant, to carry two flags, which are called "Colours" (7) . ”

“ A black regiment is always accompanied by its women on the march, and these have high notions of military honour. They would have nothing to do with men who dared to return alive from the field on which their officers had fallen. ”

“ A number of prominent colored men are now raising two regiments at the Masonic Hall, in South Eleventh street, and hundreds of brawny ebony men are ready to fill up the ranks if the State will accept their services. Peril and war blot out all distinction of race and rank. ”

“ More than three hundred colored officers served in the volunteer army in the war with Spain. Two Northern States, Illinois and Kansas, and one Southern State, North Carolina, put each in the field as part of its quota a regiment of colored troops officered throughout by colored men. Ohio and Indiana contributed each a separate battalion of colored soldiers entirely under colored officers. ”

“ While many persons in the North—perhaps strong friends of the Union—are not prepared to endorse the idea of admitting colored regiments into its service, it might be well for us to remember that every effort is being made by the South to make their black population efficient aids in defending their soil against our army. ”

“ Had every State in the Union taken active steps in the direction of forming regiments of color, we should now, instead of numbering eight regiments or about eight thousand five hundred men, have numbered seventy-five thousand—besides awakening an interest at home and abroad, that no vacillating policy of the half-hearted semi-secessionists of the North could have suppressed. ”

“ The record of this regiment should forever silence the contention made by so many, that colored men have not the ability to be officers, and that at any rate, colored soldiers will not follow the leadership of officers of their own race. ”