Rare civil war relic rediscovered

As our nation celebrates its 225th anniversary, a silent witness to a harrowing moment in Americas history has been rediscovered. Long believed to have been lost, Civil War historians and Lincoln assassination experts have verified that The Connecticut Historical Society holds in its collection one of five flags that decorated the Presidential box at Fords Theatre the night of Lincolns Assassination. According to published period reports, this flag was in fact in the hands of Lincoln the moment he was shot by assassin John Wilkes Booth. The rediscovered flag is the companion piece to the Treasury Guards regimental flag. The flag which tripped Booth is now at Ford Theatre National Historic Site.

"The Treasury Guard national flag is a spectacular discovery of a missing link in a chain of artifacts associated with the assassination of President Lincoln,said Howard Michael Madaus, Chief Curator at The National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and flag authority. The Connecticut Historical Society has turned up quite a relic.

"This is an extraordinary survival said Dr. Susan P. Schoelwer, Director of Museum Collections at The Connecticut Historical Society. This flag was present at one of the great turning points in history possibly even one of the last objects President Lincoln consciously touched. It is one of those rare objects that transports us across time in its presence we, too, stand at Lincolns side. Rediscovery of the Flag In 1998, as part of its long-term collections development process, The Connecticut Historical Society (CHS) embarked on a systematic reassessment of its Civil War collections. The story of the assassination flags had caught the attention of the Civil War community in 1996 with the discovery of one of the other four assassination flags in the collections of the Pike County Historical Society. As a result, when former CHS Acting Head Librarian Kelly Nolin, a Civil War historian, saw the documents accompanying the flag, she immediately recognized its significance.

Preserved in the box with the flag was a separate, small strip of blue silk with gold fringe, identified as part of the flag that caught the spur of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth, causing him to fall and break his leg. This strip matches the Treasury Guard regimental flag, which is displayed at Ford Theatre National Historic Site in Washington, D.C.

Also see: british commonwealth flags

About The Author:

Don French is a successful author and regular contributor to http://www.1st-in-flags.com. The flags of the world are symbols of recognition full of beauty and color for each country.