Talk:Voltaire P. Twombly

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Voltaire P. Twombly has been listed as one of the Warfare good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
July 15, 2016	Good article nominee	Listed

A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on July 28, 2016.

The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that Voltaire P. Twombly (pictured) continued to carry his company’s flag after being knocked to the ground by cannon fire during the Battle of Fort Donelson?

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Picture Needed

~~Can anyone find a common domain picture of Twombly? The only suitable ones I could find online are apparently licensed to the Iowa Historical Society. Spirit of Eagle (talk) 01:50, 16 May 2014 (UTC)~~[reply]

A public domain picture has been located and included in the article. Spirit of Eagle (talk) 06:10, 22 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

He did not carry the company colors

Article states Twombly carried the "company colors." Colors refers to a flag, company's don't have a flag, they have a guidiron, which was used a a guide to form the company on. If Twombly received the MoH for carrying the "flag" as a member of the "color guard," he was carrying either the regiment's flag, presented to the regiment upon being mustered in, which was often sown by wives of the regimental officers; or the national colors, the "Stars and Stripes." Each regiment only had one color guard, of from four to eight men, and two of them carried the regimental colors and the U.S. Flag. Without knowing more than I do from reading the article, I would bet my next Social Security check Twombly was carrying the national colors. As a result, each instance of "company" should be replaced by "regiment," and research should be made to determine whether it was the regimental banner or the national colors. During the Civil War men were often awarded the MoH for capturing an opposing regiment's flag or national colors, as were men who defended their regiment's colors. Thomas R. Fasulo (talk) 01:00, 28 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I just looked at the Harlen reference "Annals of Iowa," and it states "five color bearers of his regiment" were shot and dropped the colors. Twombly then picked them up and carried them. It didn't state whether it was the regimental banner of national colors. Thomas R. Fasulo (talk) 01:06, 28 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The flag in question was in fact the American flag. While the secondary sources do not specifically identify which flag Twombly carried, the flag is still extant and it is quite clearly the Stars and Stripes. I've also added a note addressing the discrepancy in the number of soldiers shot while trying to carry the flag. I've also changed some wording so the flag is clearly identified as the regiment rather than company flag. I'm quite embarrassed that I messed up on this point, but at least its accurate now. Thanks a lot for identifying these flaws in the article. Spirit of Eagle (talk) 20:43, 3 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]