Flags of Major Dundee's Expedition

The flags of Major Dundee's expedition could be perfectly accurate, in the fictional movie alternate universe Major Dundee (1965) happens in.

But none of the flags in Major Dundee (1965) are accurate in real history.

As near as I can figure from the recruiting scenes, Major Dundee should have taken fewer than fifty men into Mexico, making it unlikely he would have taken a single flag on the expedition. But if Dundee took about a hundred men it would be more likely that they would take a few flags along.

Major Dundee's regiment is said to be the Fifth United States Cavalry. A cavalry regiment had twelve companies or troops, each company with a regulation strength of about a hundred men, but usually about forty to sixty men in practice. If Dundee took more than half of a single company, or at least twenty to thirty men from it, he would have been justified in carrying the company's flag or guidon with him.

In the 19th century US army only cavalry companies carried guidons, which is why cavalry guidons are designed differently from the guidons of other branches of the US army.

19th century guidons were made of silk, larger than modern guidons, twenty seven inches vertically on the lance and forty one inches horizontally on the fly, with a fifteen inch swallowtail cut out of the fly end.

Regulations in 1834 made the guidon design divided horizontally red over white, with white letters "U.S." in the upper red part and the red company letter in the lower white part. This is the guidon design seen in the most cavalry movies, even though most are set after this design was no longer used.

In Major Dundee (1965) Dundee's expedition carries a guidon with "US" above and "C" below, indicating that most of the men of company C of the Fifth Cavalry should be in the expedition.

On January 18, 1862, General Order 4 decreed that guidons and camp colors have a pattern like the US flag with stars and stripes. Most guidons had the stars arranged in two concentric circles or ovals with four stars in the corners of the field. This is the guidon design that is seen the least often in cavalry films, even though it was the official design during the period that most cavalry films are set in, and the design most likely to have been carried by Dundee's command if his expedition happened in real life.

In 1885 General Order 10 decreed a return to the red-over-white pattern but with the regimental number in white on the red part and the company letter on in red on the lower white part. This guidon design is also seen in many cavalry movies, along with totally fictional designs.

http://fotw.fivestarflags.com/us%5Ecav.html

Since Dundee recruits Rebel prisoners commanded by Captain Tyreen, they might be a company captured together. They seem to carry their Rebel equivalent of a guidon, a rectangular flag, white, with a reddish head of a boar (?) and "8CSA" written along the top. This could be a homemade and not regulation CSA flag.

Dundee's command also carries another possibly homemade flag, whitish with a reddish coiled (rattle?)snake. This might possibly represent the many civilian prisoners Dundee recruited for his expedition - or else something I can't think of.

Dundee's office has two flags handing in folds from vertical lances. One has a stars and stripes pattern and one is yellow, with parts of the United States coat of arms visible. They are obviously inspired by the 1895 silk colors or standards of a cavalry regiment, each three feet high by four feet long with a yellow fringe. The national standard has a pattern like the US flag, the stars and stripes, while the regimental standard is yellow with the US coat of arms.

Many commanders in cavalry movies have a pair of colors or standards in their offices, and they are used in ceremonies and parades in movies like She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) and Rio Grande (1950), and carried in battle in movies like Fort Apache (1948).

In the final battle in the Rio Grande, Dundee orders the colors uncased. There are a few problems with such an order.

1) Colors or standards were only carried in campaigns where the majority of a regiment was present, and thus not in Dundee's expedition.
2) One flag would be a color, not colors.
3) A 19th century cavalry color was called a standard.
4) Cavalry didn't carry national standards before about 1895, instead having only blue regimental standards about two feet three inches on the lance and two feet five inches on the fly.
5) The flag called a color is clearly an ordinary national flag and not a color or standard, being too long in proportions and not having a yellow fringe.
6) A color or standard would be uncased all the time while on the march on a campaign.

So each of the five flags carried by Dundee's expedition and/or in his office was anachronistic and/or fictional in real history, though possibly of regulation status in the fictional universe of Major Dundee (1965).