Photo Credit: Massachusetts State House Battle Flag Collection
Third National. The Regiment received its third, and final, National Color on April 24, 1864, likely while the Regimental Commander Richard Byrnes was back in Massachusetts recruiting replacements for the Regiment.
This hand sewn, 34-star flag was again made by Charles Eaton; was again silk, pigment, and measured 70 by 50 inches, with the canton measuring 38 by 35 inches. Also in the Massachusetts Flag Collection, the State Archive notes that the present color of the canton is only partially due to fading, and that the original color of the canton was either sky blue or federal blue, but not navy blue. The accompanying staff was wood, one-piece measuring 116 inches, with a brass pontoon finial.
The Third National was returned to the Massachusetts Sergeant-at-Arms on December 22, 1865. This then was the flag carried by the Regiment throughout the fierce fighting of the 1864 Overland
Campaign (encompassing the Battles of the Wilderness (May 5-7), Po River (May 9-10), Spotsylvania Courthouse (May 12-18), Cold Harbor (June 3), Petersburg (June 16-19), and in small actions as part of the Siege of Petersburg, such as Jerusalem Plank Road (June 22-23), Deep Bottom (July 27-28 and August 13-14), Charles City Crossroads (August 16), Ream’s Station (August 25), and Hatcher’s Run (October 27-28). In these 1864 battles and skirmishes, the Regiment suffered 409 casualties.
The Third National was also carried by the much-diminished Regiment in the Spring 1865 Appomattox Campaign including fighting at Hatcher’s Run (March 31) and Sutherland Station (April 2) where the Regiment suffered an additional 76 casualties. This flag was
present at the Battle of Sailor’s Creek (April 6), and Farmville (April7). It was subsequently carried in the Grand Review in Washington DC (May 23) and remained with the regiment until its mustering out in Massachusetts (June 29).