In earlier centuries, before gunpowder came to dominate battlefields, colors were already used as rallying points,Д«ut also, in the days before uniforms, colors-big or little-indicated who was fighting.

To escape surrendering their colors, soldiers would strip them from the poles/pikes and hide them in their clothes or, in real desperation, burn them, as the French did in 1760 when forced to surrender to the British at Montreal, in Canada (then New France). (His own headquarters flag-13 stars in a circle on a blue background-is in the upper right of the picture.) This portrait of George Washington would have been thought particularly nasty by his British and German enemies because all around him are their colors, captured in two battles, Trenton and Princeton. In time, colors came to be thought of as almost the physical representative of the spirit of a unit and being called upon to surrender them was looked upon as the worst disgrace. When lines came apart and the order was Charge! (Or when things were falling apart and the call was for Retreat!) If colors were big and tall, they could still be made out in the midst of those clouds. as well, earlier firearms, which used black powder, put out enormous clouds of (white) smoke.units in earlier times (pre-late-19 th-century, more or less) fought in long lines and, if you put the colors in the middle, everyone in a unit had a kind of fixed point to help them know where they-and their unit-were.The reasons for such a size (on a 9-foot pole, or вЂњpikeвЂќ-thatвЂ™s 2.74m) are: Earlier colors were much bigger-in the 18 th century, they were 6 feet by 6 feet square (1.82 metres by 1.82).ДЄnd here are some modern reenactors to help you to see just how big that really is. This is clearly all about show, now, but, once upon a time, colors-and their ensigns-had an important role in warfare. An вЂњensignвЂќ is a flag (a вЂњcolorвЂќ, if infantry, вЂњstandardвЂќ, if cavalry) and an вЂњensignвЂќ is also the person who carried it.Д«y 1916, when Tolkien became a 2 nd Lieutenant, colors were no longer carried in battle, but only on parade, as this early-20 th-century illustration demonstrates-ДЄnd is still the case for the famous вЂњTrooping of the ColourвЂќ for the Queen of EnglandвЂ™s birthday parade, where her splendid footguards march with one of their colo(u)rs. Instead of a compound with its implication of replacement, вЂњensignвЂќ is actually a job description. вЂњLieutenantвЂќ is just the English version of a French compound for вЂњplace-holderвЂќ ( lieu + tenant), in this case meaning the person who will step into the captainвЂ™s shoes if necessary.

In an earlier posting, in fact, we mentioned that that rank of 2 nd Lieutenant was a replacement for the earlier rank of вЂњensignвЂќ. On the subject of banners, recently, weвЂ™ve been writing about 2 nd Lieutenant JRR Tolkien. We didnвЂ™t see why someoneвЂ™s good looks could be frightening, but we could certainly see how an army with its flags could be scary. Growing up, we always wondered about that word вЂњterribleвЂќ. Our title comes from the Hebrew Bible, in the book entitled The Song of Solomon, Chapter 6, verses 4 and 10, where the speakerвЂ™s belovedвЂ™s beauty is likened to an army with banners.

Eodred lord of the rings