The 13th’s battle flags certainly got around, at least one being captured at Knoxville in November 1863 and another possibly captured at Saylor’s Creek in 1865, though the latter is in dispute.

There’s no dispute, however, about a 13th battle flag being captured at Nashville in December of 1864. It wasn’t captured there because the 13th wasn’t there then, being in defensive entrenchments east of Richmond at the time.

And yet that’s what the federal Congressional Medal of Honor citation reads for Sergeant William Garrett of the 41st Ohio Regiment: “With several companions [he] dashed forward, the first to enter the enemy’s works, taking possession of 4 pieces of artillery and captured the flag of the 13th Mississippi Infantry (C.S.A.),” according to Find-A-Grave.

Either the citation writer got it wrong, or the Find-A-Grave copyist did, or there was a ghost 13th Mississippi Infantry Regiment at Nashville on Dec. 16, 1864. Boo!