31398 - Confederate Flagbearer, 1st Texas, 3rd Issue Wool Bunting Flag, Texas Brigade

It is known that a Richmond Depot third bunting issue ANV battle flag was issued to 1st the Texas after they lost the two flags at Antietam, however, it’s not known what had happened to it. There is an interesting account from Color Sergeant George A. Branard of the 1st Texas Infantry printed in the Galveston Daily News on 2 May 1899. During the attack on Little Round Top on 2 July 1863 he states “My flag was shot from the staff, it being broken in three places. The flag went one way, a piece of staff another, and myself and the remainder of the staff in my hand the other. We were pretty well scattered. How long I was on my back I do not know. When I came to I heard someone inmy company say, ‘See, there, Branard is not dead; see, he is trying to get up.’ Willing hands then ran to me and helped me to my feet.” A few days later after he recovered and was retreating with the rest of the army, the flag was returned to him by a companion that had picked it up on the field.