behind AotW

Lieutenant Alexander H Pickett, Adjutant of the 3rd Alabama Infantry submitted this request and signed for receipt of a new battle flag and staff on 5 April 1863. It appears that most or all of the regiments of General D.H. Hill’s Division were issued 3rd wool bunting issue flags from the Richmond (VA) Depot that month.

By way of illustration, here’s the 3rd wool bunting flag issued to the 5th Alabama that month – the 5th Alabama was brigaded with the 3rd regiment and they served together through the war. Their flags would have been very similar. You’ll note the names of some of the regiment’s engagements prior to that April, including Boonsboro (Turner’s Gap on South Mountain) and Sharpsburg.

And here’s Pickett, in the uniform of Captain and Assistant Adjutant General to Brigadier General Cullen Battle in about August 1863.

The requisition is from Lt Pickett’s Compiled Service Records (CSRs) in the National Archives. This copy online from fold3.

The 5th Alabama’s flag is in the collection of the Alabama Department of Archives and History in Montgomery.

The Pickett portrait was posted to his Findagrave memorial by user El Mero in 2015.