Flags: Some Account Of Their History And Uses Part 1

Flags.

by Andrew Macgeorge.

PREFATORY NOTE.

In a nation like ours, with a dominion so extended, and with communication by sea and land with all parts of the world, the flags under which ships sail and armies and navies fight, cannot be without interest. Yet there are few subjects in regard to which the means of information are less accessible. The object of the present volume is to give, in a popular form, some account of our own flags, and of those of other nations, ancient and modern, with some notices regarding the use of flags, in naval warfare and otherwise.

I have taken occasion to point out certain heraldic inaccuracies in the construction of our national flag, and also in the design on our bronze coinage. I shall be glad if what I have written be the means, by directing public attention to the subject, of effecting the correction of these errors.

A. M.

_Glenarn, December, 1880._

FLAGS.

On that morning when the news arrived from South Africa of the disaster at Isandlana, there was general mourning for the loss of so many brave men; but there was mourning also of a different kind,--with some perhaps even deeper--for the loss of the colours of the 24th Regiment. And yet, after all, it was only a bit of silk which had been lost, having on it certain devices and inscriptions--a thing of no intrinsic value, and which could be replaced at a cost merely nominal. But it possessed extrinsic qualities which could be measured by no money value, and every one felt that the loss was one to redeem which, or rather to redeem what that loss represented, demanded, if necessary, the putting forth of the strength of a great nation. And so, when it was found that the colours never had been really lost--that they had been saved by brave men who had laid down their lives in defending them--there was throughout the nation a feeling of intense relief that national honour had been saved; a feeling of rejoicing far beyond what was evoked by the news of the capture of the Zulu king and the termination of the war. So at sea. In our great wars in which the navy of Great Britain played so prominent a part, we became so accustomed to see the flag of the enemy bent on under our own ensign, that if an exceptional case occurred where the position of the two flags was reversed, it went home to the heart of every loyal subject with a pang which the loss of many ships by storm and tempest would not have produced.

Yet how few of us know what the national colours are, what the Union is, what the Royal Standard is. Not to speak of civilians, are there many officers, in either the army or the navy, who, without a copy before them, could accurately construct or describe the flag of the nation under which they fight, or tell what its component parts represent? I doubt it. And, after all, they would not be so much without excuse, for even at the Horse Guards and the Admiralty, there is some confusion of ideas on the subject. I have before me "The Queen's Regulations and Orders for the Army," issued by the Commander-in-chief, in which flags which can be flown only on sh.o.r.e are confounded with flags which can be flown nowhere but on board ship. Yet the subject is really an interesting one, and, connected as it is with national history, it is deserving of a little study.

Flags are of many kinds, and they are put to many uses. They are the representatives of nations; they distinguish armies and fleets, and to insult a flag is to insult the nation whose ensign it is. We see in flags, says Carlyle, "the divine idea of duty, of heroic daring--in some instances of freedom and right." There are national flags, flags of departments, and personal flags; and as signals they are of the greatest value as a means of communication at sea.

ANCIENT STANDARDS.

It is chiefly of our own flags that I intend to speak, but it may be interesting to say something of those which were in use among the peoples of ancient history.

From the earliest times of which we have authentic records, standards or banners were borne by nations, and carried in battle. It was so in Old Testament times, as we know from the mention of banners as early as the time of Moses. They are repeatedly referred to by David and Solomon. The lifting up of ensigns is frequently mentioned in the Psalms and by the Prophets, while the expression, "Terrible as an army with banners,"

shows the importance and the awe with which they were regarded.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 1.--Egyptian Standards.]

We find representations of standards on the oldest bas-reliefs of Egypt.

Indeed, the invention of standards is, by ancient writers, attributed to the Egyptians. According to Diodorus, the Egyptian standards consisted generally of the figures of their sacred animals borne on the end of a staff or spear, and in the paintings at Thebes we find on them such objects as a king's name and a sacred boat. One prominent and much used form was a figure resembling an expanded semicircular fan, and another example shows this form reversed and surmounted by the head of the G.o.ddess Athor, crowned with her symbolic disk and cow's horns. Another figure also used as a standard resembles a round-headed table-knife.

Examples of these, and of the sacred ibis and dog, are shown in Fig.

1.[1] But on the Egyptian standards--those which were no doubt used in Pharaoh's army--there were various other figures, including reptiles such as lizards and beetles, with birds crowned with the fan-like ornament already referred to. A group of these is given in Fig. 2; but they had many other forms. Those represented in Fig. 3, and which show some curious symbolic forms, are taken from the works of Champollion, Wilkinson, and Rosellini.

[1] For this, and figures 6, 14, and 15, I am indebted to the courtesy of Messrs. A. and C. Black. They appear in the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, vol. ix. p. 276.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 2.--Egyptian Standards.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 3.--Egyptian Standards.]

That the Hebrews carried standards after the exodus is, as I have already said, certain, and the probability is that they derived the practice from the Egyptian nation, from whose bondage they had just escaped, for they bore as devices figures of birds and animals, and also human figures, just as the Egyptians did. One of the earliest of the divine commands given to Moses was that "every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard with the ensign of their father's house."[2] The _ensign_ probably meant the particular device borne upon the standard by each tribe; and tradition has a.s.signed as these the symbolic cherubim seen in the visions of Ezekiel and John--Judah bearing a lion, Reuben a man, Ephraim an ox, and Dan an eagle. This is the opinion of the later Jews. The Targumists believe that, besides these representations, the banners were distinguished by particular colours--the colour for each tribe being a.n.a.logous to that of the precious stone in the breastplate of the high-priest. They consider also that each standard bore the name of the tribe with a particular sentence from the Law. The modern opinion, however, is that the Hebrew standards were distinguished only by their colours, and by the name of the tribe to which each belonged.

[2] Numbers ii. 2.

Apart from the direct Scripture evidence on the subject, this bearing of distinguishing standards is what might be expected in a military organization such as that of the Israelites, just as we find them using warlike music. It is interesting to note that even the particular trumpet signals to be used for the a.s.sembling and advance of the troops, and in cases of alarm in time of war, are carefully prescribed,[3] while the a.s.sociation of their military standards with the trumpet is indicated in the exclamation of Jeremiah: "How long shall I see the standard and hear the sound of the trumpet?"[4]

[3] Numbers x. 3.

[4] Jer. iv. 21.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 4.--An a.s.syrian Standard. Fig. 5.--Another a.s.syrian Standard.]

As the standard was among all nations regarded with reverence, so the standard-bearer was selected for his strength and courage. So important was this considered that Isaiah, in describing the ruin and discomfiture that was about to fall on the King of a.s.syria, could find no stronger expression than to say that his overthrow would be "as when a standard-bearer fainteth."[5]

[5] Isa. x. 18.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 6.--a.s.syrian Standards and Standard-bearers.]

The standards of the a.s.syrians, like those of the Egyptians, consisted of figures fastened on the end of spears or staffs; but of these very few varieties have been yet discovered. Layard says[6] that "standards were carried by the a.s.syrian charioteers. In the sculptures they have only two devices [Figs. 4, 5, 6]: one a figure, probably that of a divinity, standing on a bull and drawing a bow; in the other, two bulls running in opposite directions. These figures are inclosed in a circle and fixed to a long staff ornamented with streamers and ta.s.sels. The standards appear to have been partly supported by a rest in front of the chariot, and a long rope connecting them with the extremity of the pole.

In a bas-relief of Khorsabad this rod is attached to the top of a standard." The interesting ill.u.s.tration given in Fig. 6 is from a sculpture in which these standards are represented with the figures of the standard-bearers, and in which also the ropes or supports of the staff are indicated.

[6] _Nineveh and its Remains._

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 7.--a.s.syrian Standards.]

There were, however, varieties in the forms of the a.s.syrian standards other than those mentioned by Layard. In the annexed cut (Fig. 7) the one to the left is from a sculpture in the British Museum. The others are given on the authority of Botta.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 8.--Persian Standard. Fig. 9.--Turkish Horse-tail Standard.]

The Persians, like the a.s.syrians, carried their standards, in battle, on staffs or spears attached to chariots. Their royal standard was a golden eagle with wings expanded carried on the end of a spear. They had also a figure of the sun which they used on great occasions when the king was present with the army. Quintus Curtius describes one of these figures of the sun, inclosed in a crystal, as making a very splendid appearance above the royal tent. But the proper royal standard of the Persians for many centuries, until the Mahommedan conquest, was a blacksmith's leather ap.r.o.n, around which the people had been at one time rallied to a successful opposition against an invader (Fig. 8). Many other national standards have had their origin in similar causes. Something which was at hand was seized in an emergency, and lifted up as a rallying point for the people, and afterwards adopted from the attachment which clung to it as an object identified with patriotic deeds. In this way originated the horse-tails borne as a standard by the modern Turks (Fig.

9). Under the old system, among that people, the distinction of rank between the two cla.s.ses of pachas was indicated by the number of these horse-tails, the standards of the second cla.s.s having only two tails, while those of the higher had three. Hence the term a pacha of two tails or three. A further mark of distinction appears to have been the elevation of one of the tails above the others, and the surmounting of each with the crescent, as shown in Fig. 10.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 10.--Standard of Pacha.]

The Romans had various forms of standards, some composed entirely of fixed figures of different devices, including figures of animals. The eagle, according to Pliny, was the first and chief military ensign. In the second consulship of Caius Marius (B.C. 104) the eagle (Fig. 11) alone was used, but at a subsequent period some of the old emblems were resumed. These were the minotaur, the horse, and the wild boar; and on the Trajan Column we find as one of their standards the historic wolf (Fig. 12).

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 11.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 12.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 13.--Roman Standards.]

One of the most ancient of the Roman standards had an origin similar to that of the ap.r.o.n of the Persians and the horse-tails of the Turks. It was derived from a popular rising which took place in the time of Romulus, and was composed of a wisp of hay attached to the end of a pole (as seen in Fig. 13), and carried into battle. From its name, _manipulus_, the companies of foot soldiers, of which the _hastati_, _principes_, and _triarii_ of each legion were composed, came to be called maniples--_manipuli_. Another standard borne by the Romans was a spear with a piece of cross wood at the top with the figure of a hand above, and having below a small round shield of gold or silver, as shown in Fig. 13. On this circle were at first represented the warlike deities Mars and Minerva, but after the extinction of the commonwealth it bore the effigies of the emperors and their favourites. From these coin-shaped devices the standards were called _numina legionum_. The eagle was sometimes represented with a thunderbolt in its claws, of which an example will be seen in Fig. 13. Under the later emperors it was carried with the legion, which was on that account sometimes termed _aquila_. The place for this standard was near the general, almost in the centre.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 14.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 15.]