Where Are My Green Flags?*

The next regiment up is the 28th Massachusetts of Farnsworth's brigade.  The 28th was held in reserve of Schurz's division on August 29th and saw little action, despite the battle raging to their front.  On the 30th, however, they partook in the bloody back-and-forth that characterized the Union retreat and lost upwards of 110 killed, wounded, or missing.

At this time, the regiment carried the so-called Pilot Flag and not its later, more famous standard.  The Pilot Flag was difficult to reconstruct, since the few existing images of it are incomplete or somewhat unclear, but I think I got it just about right - apart from the grey blob on the right side, which I learned later should really be an Irish wolfhound.  At the front is Lt. Colonel George Cartwright, wounded during the day's action.

For information on the 28th Massachusetts, I direct all interested parties to the website of the "recreated" regiment, from which I learned much of what I know about the 28th.

*On the Peninsula,  Edwin Sumner, when calling for the Irish Brigade to be sent into action, would ask, "Where are my green flags?", though the 28th would not join the Irish Brigade until late in 1862.  This will likely be my only "Irish" regiment, however, and in any case there were a substantial number of Yankees in the 28th.