Civil War 15th Army Corps Forty Rounds Headquarters Guidon 

Worsted wool, 49 x 60 in. overall, 36 in. forked end. Red field stenciled with "Forty Rounds" and a U.S. cartridge box. Blue border machine stitched to red field, with reinforced hand-stitching along area near forked end. Gold cotton fringe hand-stitched to blue border. Canvas hoist machine-stitched to field, with inked in block letters 2d Brigd 15th.

General Orders 10, Fifteenth Army Corps, of February 14, 1865, established a color coded system for the Corps' divisional and brigade flags. This was modified on April 9, 1865 with General Orders No. 21 which specified the corps and four division flags to be, "silk or bunting, five feet six inches fly, five feet hoist." The brigade flags were specified to be, "swallowtailed, five feet from the peak to end of the swallowtail, and three feet to the fork, four feet five inches on pike. The field of the flag shall be the division color and besides fringe it will have a border of one of the Corps colors, other than the particular Division color." This swallowtail guidon generally conforms to the specifications of General Orders No. 21, including the yellow fringe prescribed for the divisional flags.

The headquarters flag of the First Division, in conformance with the orders, was red. This guidon, with red field and blue border, is that of the First Division, Second Brigade, Fifteenth Corps, which was specified in the General Orders to be, "field div. color, border blue." Indeed, the flag is marked on the hoist edge, "2nd Brigd, 15th A..." Color images of all Union headquarters flags, including for this guidon, can be found in the book, Civil War Battle Flags of the Union Army and Order of Battle, compiled by Gen. C. McKeever, Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army.

At the time of issue of this guidon, the First Division was commanded by Bvt. Maj. Gen. Charles R. Woods and the Second Brigade by Col. Robert Catterson. His brigade consisted of the 26th, 40th, 103rd Illinois; 97th and 100th Indiana; 6th Iowa and the 46th Ohio Infantry. The Fifteenth Corps and this division were heavily engaged in the Battle of Bentonville, in North Carolina, on March 21, 1865, before these flags were issued.

The story of how the Fifteenth Corps adopted their corps badge may be as much apocryphal as real. The story goes, however, that one day an enlisted man in the corps of Major General John A. "Blackjack" Logan was asked where his corps patch was. Clapping his hand on his cartridge box, he said, "Forty Rounds. Can you show me a better one?" Shortly thereafter Logan issued General Order No. 10 prescribing that the badge for the Fifteenth Corps should be a miniature cartridge box and above the box will be inscribed the words 'Forty Rounds.'

The Fifteenth Corps was a favorite of Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman probably because he was its first commander after its creation on December 18, 1862. Sherman commanded the corps into the siege of Chattanooga in November 1863 where he took over command of the Army of the Tennessee. Maj. Gen. Frank Blair took over for a short time before being replaced by Maj. Gen. John A. Logan who led the corps through the Atlanta Campaign. In September 1864, Maj. Gen. Peter Osterhaus commanded the corps on the March to the Sea. Logan returned to command in January 1865 for the campaign into South and North Carolina. Maj. Gen. William B. Hazen, commanded the corps from May 1865 though its disbandment in August.

Union designating or headquarters flags are quite rare with not that many to be found in museums and even fewer in private hands. These are dominated by the flags of the eastern Army of the Potomac with very few western Union Army headquarters flags surviving, certainly fewer than those of its eastern counterparts. To our knowledge, no other such flag has appeared on the market in the last two decades. An exceptionally rare flag from the end of the Civil War.

Greg Biggs, Clarksville, Tennessee. March, 2012

Provenance: Found in North Carolina, and descended in the family of Reverend John K. Mason of Richmond, Virginia.

Very Good, Mothing, fraying, the fly edge is distressed. Canvas hoist split.