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The first Sunday in June, Professor Lorenzo Williams spoke to the group when it gathered for a service at the Methodist Church, telling them that "Patriotism is a noble virtue; Christian patriotism is heavenly virtue.” To the citizens of the town, the “boys” were instant heroes. The village ladies made each a tiny silk flag to sport on his coat, and on 26 April they formally presented the company with a flag. Within its silver stars was printed the slogan “Our Country Forever.” Whether this was the flag, somewhat altered, that was presented to the company on 11 June or another is difficult to tell a century and a half later. More likely, it was a smaller, hurried effort that the ladies later expanded and improved upon when it became clear that at least several more weeks would pass before the boys would be off. When the time came, the leave-takings were patriotic, heartfelt, and tinged with bravura. L. Ami Trace told his fellow members of the College Philo-Franklin Literary Society: “I am going to fight for my country: I shall never disgrace you.”3
On
the eleventh of June the community bade farewell to its own. Faculty, townspeople,
and President Loomis all spoke as the Allegheny Company stood in formation
before the College’s great hall. Miss Hattie Bain presented the volunteers
with a large flag of fine wool bunting, sewn by the ladies of the town. With
seven stripes of red and six of white, it showed 30 gold stars in its blue
corner field in an elliptical disposition, with single stars in each of the
four corners of the field. Thus the 34 states of the Union before secession
were represented, demonstrating the desire of both the women of Meadville
and those about to march away that the Union be preserved. On one side of
the flag, within the starry ellipse, was inscribed in gold lettering the
phrase “Our Country.” On the other side appeared the Latin words, “Semper
Fidelis” (“Always Faithful”–later to become the slogan
of the U.S. Marine Corps in 1883). President Loomis's valedictory to the
volunteers was brief and emotional, reminiscent of the farewell the Spartans
paid to their troops departing for the battle of Thermopylae. With tears
streaming down his cheeks, this physically imposing man growled in his deep
voice, "Come back with the flag, boys, or come back wrapped in its folds."4
Flag curators have recently shown interest in the Volunteers' Flag, especially in its shape and dimensions. At the beginning of the 1860s some regulations did exist regarding flag preparation, but these were not highly specific and were revised during 1861. The Allegheny Company flag was of the same proportion as larger garrison and storm flags, but one-quarter the size of the former and half the size of the latter, for a company flag was meant to be carried rather than displayed from a stanchion. Five feet by ten feet, the Allegheny flag nevertheless is unusually large for a company flag of that era. It must have been a challenge for one man to bear, as various stains, especially in its lower fly corner, attest.
The
1861 rules that called for infantry units to use flags approximately six
feet square had probably not yet been publicized by the time the Allegheny
flag was created. They indicated that the canton, or Union, in the upper
quarter next to the staff should have white stars on a blue field and should
vertically extend to the lower edge of the fourth red stripe from the top.
In length, it was to extend one-third the fly of the flag. On large garrison
flags, this regulation resulted in a nearly square canton. On smaller flags,
the canton took the shape of a narrow vertical rectangle. The Allegheny flag
differs from these standard practices. The canton’s height is 30 inches
alongside four red and three white stripes. But the canton also extends 50
inches of the banner’s ten-foot length, or about 42% or two-fifths
rather than one-third of its horizontal dimension.
No Federal regulations prescribed the pattern of stars in the canton. The star count was supposed to represent the number of states. White stars were to be embroidered, but as this was a lengthy and expensive task and few embroiderers were available, paint was often used. Silver paint tarnished rapidly, so in 1861 gold paint was substituted. With the demand for regimental flags increasing, the army authorized depots in New York City and Cincinnati as well as in Philadelphia to produce flags. In New York, square cantons with five rows of gold stars were used. Philadelphia used the narrow canton with gold stars arranged in two rings, with one star in each corner of the canton and often one in the center of the rings. Cincinnati used the narrow canton of Philadelphia but with a row arrangement of stars as employed by New York. It is difficult to determine nearly a century and a half later how much the women of Meadville knew of these various flag formats. Whatever the case, the Volunteers’ flag was an innovative variation on these common designs, as a horizontal rather than vertical rectangular canton was employed, with but one ring of stars with two different slogans in its center. The flag's shape and size suggest that these were logical reductions from those of standard garrison and storm flags.5 The Meadville ladies also appear to have known of, or contributed to the establishment of, the practice of selecting red for the color of the banding around the exterior of the flag, indicating that the flag was made in time of war. The color of the binding for flags made in peacetime is white, though presentation flags also make use of gold braid.
