Did You Know Nicola Marschall Served in Confederate Army?

I wrote two blogs this week about Nicola Marschall, thought by many to have designed the First Confederate Flag and the Uniform. Did you know, although he was exempt from the military in his native Prussia due to deafness, he joined the Confederate army shortly after the war started?

He served most of the war, although the records are fragmentary, as are those of so many Confederate soldiers. Mr. Stark Young in his book Southern Treasury of Life and Literature gives us the best overall picture: "When war was declared Mr. Marschall enlisted as a private of volunteers, going with his command from Marion to garrison Forts Morgan and Gaines, at the mouth of Mobile Bay. There he served for a time, then returned to Marion on a furlough. while at home, on the advice of a friend, an officer, he employed a substitute for a year and three months.

Then came the call for more volunteers, and again Mr. Marschall enlisted, this time in the Second Alabama Regiment of Engineers. he served with Colonel Lockett, a son of Mrs. Napoleon Lockett, under General Polk, just preceding the fall of Vicksburg.

Mr. Marschall served then in the Confederate army until the curtain was finally drawn at Appomattox." All of this is from a paper written by Owsley C. Costlow, titled The Life of Nicola Marschall.

In his introduction Costlow says " This then is the story of the man who came from Prussia to give his adopted land a flag and uniform also helped us in our struggle."