A Union regiment's national color wasn't a store-bought flag. The regulation infantry color was made of silk, about six feet by six and a half, with gold fringe, and the regiment's designation was painted on one of the stripes. You can see it on this figure: "83 REG. P.V." In February 1862, the War Department authorized regiments to add the names of the battles they had fought in, and veteran units began filling their stripes with them. By the end of the war, a flag like the 83rd Pennsylvania's read like the regiment's history, from the Peninsula to Gettysburg and beyond. Every name on it had been paid for, and men were ready to die to keep it from being captured.

The figure leans hard into a charge, both hands gripping the staff while the national color streams back over his shoulders, its gold fringe snapping in the wind. The sergeant's chevrons on his sleeve are sky blue, the infantry color. He carries a revolver instead of a rifle, since his job was to keep the flag moving forward, not to fight. He wears K&C's 83rd Pennsylvania uniform: dark blue chasseur jacket with yellow trim, green shoulder tufts, sky-blue trousers, and white gaiters, with a red corps badge on his forage cap. Pair him with the Sergeant with Regimental Flag for the regiment's full stand of colors, with Infantry Corporal Charging in the color guard, or with Brigadier General Strong Vincent.

King & Country model CW122. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single foot figure of an 83rd Pennsylvania color sergeant charging with the national color, on a sculpted groundwork base. Boxed.