sold Gen. William T. Sherman Approves Battle Honors For the Flag of One of His Best Artillery Units

Taylor’s Battery was organized early in the Civil War by Ezra Taylor and was accepted into Federal service in July 1861 as Company B of the First Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Light Artillery.  Approximately 207 members from the greater Chicago region fought under Generals William T. Sherman and Ulysses S. Grant, and they were recognized as one of the finest light artillery units in the Army.  The battery’s six guns were heard at most of the great battles of the West.

Most people interested in the Civil War have seen pictures illustrating that in that conflict, units could put the names of battles in which they had participated directly on their flags. These were called “battle honors” and they could not be simply placed their on a unit’s whim; they had to be approved as worthy by boards of officers who sat to make just such determinations. Lieut. Israel Rumsey, in immediate command of the battery, felt, with justification, that his men deserved to be serving alongside flags with battle honors and wrote the Board of Officers for authorization.

Letter Signed by Rumsey, camp near Big Black River, Mississippi, August 8, 1863, to the Board of Officers to be convened at Corps Headquarters on August 12, 1863. “In pursuance of orders from headquarters 15th Army Corps…I herewith submit my claim that the battery of which I am commanding officer has ‘for gallantry and good conduct’ entitled itself to inscribe upon its banners the names of the following battles in which it has participated, I think with honor.”?He then lists seven battles, including Belmont, Fort  Donelson, Shiloh and Vicksburg, among others. On the verso, the request is approved by Maj. Ezra Taylor, who says he takes “great pride in endorsing this application.” That same day, Sherman agrees as well, asking that the document “be submitted to the Board.” The request was undoubtedly granted, as a flag from this unit from 1864 survives, and it has a number of these battle honors plus some additional ones.

In all our years in this field, this is the first letter relating to battle honors on flags that we have seen. We acquired it from the descendant of a Civil War general in whose family it had remained all these years.