Brigade, Division and Corps flags?

[brasidas19004]

Did the French and Prussians use any flags or banners to mark where the Brigade, Division and Corps HQs? 

I am making some command bases for my FPW game, and I'm sure they must have had some sort of flag, even if it was just a rank flag for the brigade commander.

Also, the U.S.A. was using them in the ACW, so I assume they got the idea from someone else.
Thanks for any info!

[Jemima Fawr]

Aside from personal heraldic banners for nobles up to the 17th Century, I've never heard of anyone using headquarters flags until a year or two into the ACW, sorry.

[John Boadle]

The Prussians absolutely didn't have such pennons at this time, although they adopted something of the sort before World War One. For the French in 1870 it's less clear. No system of command "fanions" was prescribed by regulation until 1876, but certainly some generals did have them in 1870. I think an unofficial system had developed, probably in North Africa, and the 1876 regulations confirmed it. Photographs and well-researched paintings show that some corps and divisional commanders had these fanions, but we don't know if they all did. I don't think brigade-level commanders had them, as the 1876 system only prescribed flags for divisional commanders upwards. The fanions we know of in 1870 are plain tricolours for corps commanders, and vertical red and white stripes for infantry division commanders. The stripes were of equal width: one red stripe for the first infantry division of a corps, two for the second and three for the third.

[Khmorg]

https://www.flagsofwar.com/

[Calvin59]

These pennants originated in North Africa in 1837. General Bugeaud states in a note: "as it is important to judge at a glance where the brigade commanders and the ambulance are, each brigade leader will have a flame carried by the accompanying order..."

The pennants were distinctive of a function. Their size is smaller than that of the standard (0.64x0.64) and the active flag (0.90x0.90) as shown in this extract from the Infantry Section Leader's Manual.