U.S. ARMY, MEXICAN WAR, CAMPAIGN STREAMER, BUENA VISTA, 1847

Description

U.S. ARMY, MEXICAN WAR, CAMPAIGN STREAMER, BUENA VISTA, 1847
The Army adorns its flag with a separate Streamer for each important action in all wars in which it participated.  The Army currently allows 190 Streamers. This Campaign Streamer is regulation size at 2-3/4 inch x 4 feet long. This Streamer has a grommet at the hoist end (left side) to protect the material and provide a device to attach the Streamer to the ring holder and then to the top of the flagpole which is held in place by the top ornament (spear, eagle, etc)
Buena Vista, 22 - 23 February 1847
Gen. Santa Anna, President of Mexico, had meanwhile taken the field personally and assembled an army at Son Luia Potosi. Learning of the weakness of the forces near Saltillo, Santa Anna moved with about 15,000 men to the attack in February 1847. Taylor hastily redeployed his force at Buena Vista, where the terrain offered better possibilities for defense. Santa Anna used French tactics at Buena Vista, attempting to overwhelm American positions with dense columns of men. Massed tires of infantry and artillery proved effective against the attacking columns, and, after two days of the most severe fighting of the war, Santa Anna withdrew his dispirited army to San Luis Potosi, having lost from 1,500 to 2,000 men killed and wounded. The Americans, too exhausted to pursue, had lost 264 killed, 450 wounded, and 26 missing.
The campaign streamers attached to the Army Flag staff denote campaigns fought by the Army throughout our nation’s history. Each streamer (2 ¾ inches wide and 4 feet long) is embroidered with the designation of a campaign and the year(s) in which it occurred. The colors derive from the campaign ribbon authorized for service in that particular war.
The concept of campaign streamers came to prominence in the Civil War when Army organizations embroidered the names of battles on their organizational colors. This was discontinued in 1890, when units were authorized to place silver bands, engraved with the names of battles, around the staffs of their organizational colors. When AEF units in World War I were unable to obtain silver bands, General Pershing authorized the use of small ribbons bearing the names of the World War I operations. In 1921 all color-bearing Army organizations were authorized to use the large campaign streamers currently displayed.
"The Army Flag and Its Streamers" was originally prepared in August 1964 by the Office of the Chief of Military History, in cooperation with the Office of the Chief of Information, and the U.S. Army Exhibit Unit, to provide general summaries of each of the campaigns displayed on the Army flag. It was subsequently updated by the Center of Military History to add the campaigns from Vietnam. This study covered named campaigns only and did not include the campaigns that were sometimes awarded to individual units for war service in engagements outside the limitations of the named campaigns (i.e., Virginia 1863). It only addressed those campaigns authorized for display on the Army flag.