Lone Star

Color Bearer, 1st Texas, Army of Northern Virginia, CSA, circa 1862

Original Watercolor, 26-1/2" x 17"

The color bearer portrayed carries the Lone Star flag, inscribed with the battle honors, "Seven Pines/Gaines Farm" in the blue canton, and "Elthams Landing/Malvern Hill" in the field. This very important flag was made by Lula Wigfall, daughter of the regiment's first colonel, Louis T. Wigfall, and was presented to the 1st Texas in the summer of 1861.

As its battle honors attested, the 1st Texas fought under this flag throughout the Peninsula Campaign. The Texas carried it through the Second Manassas fight in August 1862 and into Maryland during Lee's first invasion of the North. During the desperate Battle of Antietam, in Miller's cornfield on Lee's northern flank, the 1st Texas suffered an 82 percent casualty rate -- the highest endured by any unit North or South during the entire war. In the course of the battle, nine brave Texas standard-bearers fell carrying this flag. After the ninth man went down, the flag was lost -- picked up from amongst the fallen by a Pennsylvania private.

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