In the United States army the infantry regiment has two colours, the
national and the regimental. They are carried in action.

In the French army one colour (_drapeau_) is carried by each infantry
regiment. It is carried by an officer, usually a _sous-lieutenant_, and
the guard is composed of a non-commissioned officer and a party of
"first class" soldiers. Regiments which have taken an enemy's colour or
standard in battle have their own colours "decorated," that is, the
cross of the Legion of Honour is affixed to the stave near the point.
Battle honours are embroidered on the white of the tricolour. The
_eagle_ was, in the First and Third Empires, the infantry colour, and
was so called from the gilt eagle which surmounted the stave. The
_chasseurs a pied_, like the rifles of the British army, carry no
colours, but the battalion quartered for the time being at Vincennes
carries a colour for the whole arm in memory of the first _chasseurs de
Vincennes_. As in other countries, colours are saluted by all armed
bodies and by individual officers and men. When the _drapeau_ is not
present with the regiment its place is taken by an ordinary flag.

The colours of the German infantry, foot artillery and engineers vary in
design with the states to which the corps belong in the first instance;
thus, black and white predominate in Prussian colours, red in those of
Wurttemberg regiments, blue in Bavarian, and so on. The point of the
colour stave is decorated in some cases with the iron cross, in memory
of the War of Liberation and of the war of 1870. Each battalion of an
infantry regiment has its own colour, which is carried by a
non-commissioned officer, and guarded as usual by a colour party. The
colour is fastened to the stave by silver nails, and the ceremony of
driving the first nail into the stake of a new colour is one of great
solemnity. Rings of silver on the stave are engraved with battle
honours, the names of those who have fallen in action when carrying the
colour, and other commemorative names and dates. The oath taken by each
recruit on joining is sworn on the colour (_Fahneneid_).

The practice in the British army of leaving the colours behind on taking
the field dates from the battle of Isandhlwana (22nd January 1879), in
which Lieutenants Melvill and Coghill lost their lives in endeavouring
to save the colours of the 24th regiment. In savage warfare, in which
the British regular army is more usually engaged, it is