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The Color Bearer Tradition



The War Between the States was the heyday of American battleflags and their

bearers. With unusualhistorical accuracy, many stirring battle paintings show

the colors and their intrepid bearers in the forefront of the fray or as a

rallying point in a retreat. The colors of a Civil War regiment embodied its

honor, and the men chosen to bear them made up an elite. Tall, muscular men

were preferred, because holding aloft a large, heavy banner, to keep it

visible through battle smoke and at a distance,

demanded physical strength. Courage was likewise required to carry a flag

into combat, as the colors "drew lead like a magnet." South Carolina's

Palmetto Sharpshooters, for example, lost 10 out of 11 of its bearers and

color guard at the Battle of Seven Pines, the flag passing through four hands

without touching the ground.







Birth and Early Life in Charleston



Born in Charleston in 1824, Charles Edmiston and his twin sister, Ellen Ann,

were the third son and second daughter, respectively, of newspaper editor

Joseph Whilden and his wife, Elizabeth Gilbert Whilden. The births of two

more sons, Richard Furman in 1826 and William Gilbert in 1828, would complete

the family, making seven children in all. Young Charles' roots ran deep into

the soil of the lowcountry. His Whilden ancestors had settled in the

Charleston area in the 1690's, and an ancestor on his mother's side, the Rev.

William Screven, had arrived in South Carolina even earlier, establishing the

First Baptist Church of Charleston in 1683, today the oldest church in the