Photo Credit: Massachusetts State House Battle Flag Collection
First Irish Color (Pilot Flag).This flag was presented by Boston Mayor Joseph Wightman on January, 10. 1862. The flag was green silk, measuring 44 by 50 inches, again much smaller than the size prescribed by Army Regulations.
This flag came to be known as “the Pilot Flag” after an article
appeared in the Boston Irish- Catholic newspaper The Pilot describing the presentation ceremony and providing an accurate drawing of the obverse side of the flag. (Pictured. For a full text transcription of The Pilot article, click the below illustration.) The Pilot flag was replete with Irish and American imagery and was somewhat unique in that the two sides of the flag were not identical.
Photo Credit: Boston College Libraries
The First Pilot flag was returned to the City of Boston on 26 December 1862. It was turned over to the Massachusetts Sergeant at Arms on December 22, 1865, along with a one-piece wooden staff, measuring 108 inches. The staff lacks its finial – which would have been an eagle – apparently shot off at the Battle of Secessionville (June 16,1862.) (See Note below) The Flag remains in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts State Flag Collection in Boston.
The modern (“Recreated”) 28th Massachusetts,Company B, has had the Pilot flag replicated in exact detail. Images of that flag, along with an explanation of the Irish and American imagery on the flag can be seen by clicking on either of the below images.
Photo Credit: 28th Massachusetts Company B
Photo Credit: 28th Massachusetts Company B
NOTE: 28th Massachusetts Color Sergeant John J. McDonald, originally from Prince Edward Island, Canada, was killed at Secessionville on June 16, 1862. Correspondence from him in March and May from first to the Boston Pilot newspaper and then to his wife, to his wife Henrietta have been transcribed and placed online. The page includes subsequent correspondence from his Company Commander, Captain Charles Sanborn to his widow.