Minnesota and Virginia argue over flag: The Battle of Gettysburg still gets attention

» FortBrooke1824 - The Battle of Gettysburg still gets attention

I could not help but pass on this article. Hope you all enjoy it.

"Feb. 25, 2004--A battle over the flag of the 28th Virginia Infantry, which has already cost an unknown number of lives, is now just running up a bill for postage as an effort has been renewed to get the banner back to its state of origin from its current custodians at the Minnesota Historical Society.

As a historical artifact, the flag has terrific provenance, as the antique dealers say. It was being carried by a member of the 28th VA as they took part in Pickett's Charge on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg.

The regiment hit a part of the Union line that was being defended by the 1st Minnesota Volunteers. At the end of the assault the Confederates withdrew, leaving the flag behind, but the fighting had been so ferocious that the 1st Minnesota, which had lost 80 percent of their troops the previous day, counted 30 percent of their remaining force as casualties.

Marshall Sherman (who would lose a leg in a later battle) carried the torn and bloodied flag home. At his death in 1896, the flag became part of the Minnesota Historical Society's collection.

"This artifact is just as significant to the state of Minnesota as to the state of Virginia," Minnesota Historical Society deputy director Ian Stew art said yesterday. Regimental battle flags, besides serving as a visual reference to keep a fighting force together in the midst of the chaos of battle, took on an intense emotional significance as well in the Civil War. To lose one disgraced a regiment. To capture an enemy flag was such an accomplishment that many soldiers won the Medal of Honor for doing so, including Marshall Sherman.

The battle for the flag of the 28th Virginia has taken on nearly the same emotional significance today. A reenactment group which portrays the regiment has campaigned for years to get the flag returned from Minnesota, although they now ask that it go to a museum, the Roanoke Times reports.

Brig. Gen. John S. Brown, the Army's chief of military history, wrote in 2002 that "We intend that the flag be returned to the Army and placed on exhibit in the National Museum of the United States Army scheduled to open June 14, 2009, at Fort Belvoir, Virginia."

U.S. Sen. George Allen, U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte and Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore wrote a letter last week to the U.S. Army's chief of military history, reiterating their interest in seeing the flag returned to Virginia.

The Army is involved for two reasons, sources note. First, the War Department in the early part of the 20th century had ordered all captured Civil War flags returned to Washington, to be stored as relics or to be returned to their states of origin. Most state governments obeyed, but there were exceptions.

The flag of the 28th Virginia was one of the exceptions. The story of the heroic stand of the 1st Minnesota at Gettysburg was still powerful in the state at the time, and veterans of the regiment or their survivors still had influence. They considered the flag a legitimate trophy.

Chris Caveness, executive director of the 28th Virginia Infantry Regiment, a group of Roanoke Valley re-enactors who have worked to get the flag back, said the flag is the only known captured battle flag that has not been returned to its state of origin.

"We're armed legitimately with what we need if we have to take civil action," Caveness added.

Current Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty issued an unequivocal declaration that Virginia wasn't getting the flag back, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported.

Pawlenty's chief of staff, Dan McElroy, said that as far as he knew, there had been no new developments in the dispute. He said the decision to keep the flag in Minnesota was made not by state government officials, but by the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul.

The last time the flag campaign was renewed was under the administration of then-Gov. Jesse Ventura, who declined to cooperate with the famous words "Why? I mean, we won."

The flag was one of 12 captured during Pickett's Charge. Soldiers from Roanoke, Botetourt, Bedford, Craig and Montgomery counties made up the 28th Virginia Infantry, Caveness said."

-- posted by FortBrooke1824