regimental color guard

[Plane_crazzy]

Hello all. Co. C is the standard color guard for infantry but with 12 companies per regiment what is the arrangement? I ask because I am starting a new cavalry unit and would like to be able to display the regimental colors in camp. Thank you for any help.

[Silas]

Re: regimental color guard

Close, but no cigar. The color company is the company with the third highest ranking captain in the regiment, not necessarily the captain of Co. C. The most senior captain is on the right. The next is line is on the left.

There's actually a chart in Upton's 1874 manual which was reprinted in Dal Bello's PIE. Said chart only goes out ten companies, but it really doesn't matter whether there are five or twelve companies in the regiment. The company with the third most senior line officer, presumably a captain, is the color company.

As a personal aside a mainstream unit near me broke from another unit. The original unit did a company of 20th Maine. Those who broke continued to do 20th Maine, but they chose Co. F because it was the color company at Gettysburg. In my area, reenactors tend to be very Gettysburg centric. The breakup plus laying claim to the color company at Gettysburg caused a great deal of heartburn for quite a while. I note a piece of mainstream politics only as an example that Co. C is not always the color company.