State Museum unveils Civil War flags
Copyright © 2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
AUGUSTA — A history of Maine's role in the Civil War, which took the lives of 3,200 Mainers and wounded 11,000 more, goes on display today at the Maine State Museum in the form of delicate and fragile flags carried by the infantrymen, artillerymen and cavalry riders of the 1860s.
The 17th Maine Infantry battle flag is one of several recently restored flags that will be on a display rotation at the Maine State Museum in Augusta. The 17th Infantry flag is scheduled for display beginning in December. click to enlarge
The exhibit titled "... to the Highest Standard: Maine's Civil War Flags" opens today, Flag Day, with fanfare, re-enactors, Civil War music and some newly made hardtack.
Four years in the making, the flag exhibit is the result of the efforts of Laurie LaBar, the museum's conservator of historic collections who was charged with preserving battle-scarred flags that hung for decades in the Hall of Flags on the first floor of the State House.
With more than $400,000, she and a crew first obtained replicas of the flags to replace in the cases at the State House, and then painstakingly vacuumed dust from the battle flags of various Maine regiments and restored as much of them as possible.
The original nylon netting used for the flags actually shreds the fabric from the inside. Movement worsens the tattered condition.
The exhibit is tucked into a small space next to the transportation display on the lower level of the museum in the Cultural Building.
The flag space is dimly lit, a technique meant to minimize exposure to damaging light. The 6-by-6-foot flags are permanently mounted on panels and gently tilted to face viewers. The first two are the deep gold 1862 flag of the 1st Maine Heavy Artillery and a blue infantry flag with half the material missing.
An adjacent case holds a small patch of blue from the 16th Maine flag whose members cut it up to prevent it from falling into Confederate hands.
Swallow-tail flags, guidons for the cavalry, are also part of the exhibit.
Little is left of the flag of the 20th Maine Infantry that was shot up so full of holes it had to be relined. A photo taken in the late 1800s shows a group of veterans gathered to select where a monument should be at Little Round Top at Gettysburg, Pa.
This flag will be displayed for up to four years, much longer than the others, which will be rotated every six months.
Having the opening of the flag exhibit coincide with Flag Day is "simply lucky chance," said LaBar.
National Flag Day, marking the anniversary of the Flag Resolution of 1777, was established by President Woodrow Wilson on May 30, 1916, and signed as an act of Congress by President Harry S. Truman in 1949.
Along with the flags, the museum exhibit offers other artifacts from the Civil War.
"We tried to put the flags in context," said LaBar.
The "Tools of an Army" display has guns, personal gear and stories from soldiers, including one from Cpl. Gilbert Townsend of Jay. An Oct. 15, 1864, letter home from Townsend complains that someone stole his gun. He somehow obtained another, which hangs in a case along with a soldier's shaving kit, music books and a piece of hardtack given by a soldier to a 5-year-old girl, Elizabeth Wade. Only a few bites were taken.
There's a pipe made by Seldon Connor of Fairfield, who became governor of Maine in 1876.
"We know who the people were who carried them," said LaBar of the exhibit items.
There's even an 1862 recruiting poster saying "Richmond Taken" — referring to the Virginia city — and suggesting it's the last chance to enlist before the end of the Civil War.
But the war raged for another three years.
All told, there are 334 flags at the museum, half of which have been restored. The others are being worked on and many date to other wars the U.S. has fought, such as World War II and the Korean War.
Displays this weekend at the museum will include a computer view of all the restored Civil War flags, and bean bags to illustrate the weight differences between wool and silk flags.
The exhibit and the museum are free to the public until July 1, when admission will be charged.
Two groups, the Daughters of the American Revolution and legislators, have previewed the exhibit.
One tall, thin case holds staffs and finials that held the Civil War flags. The shadow from an eagle finial (the top of the staff) shows how a bullet tore a piece from the bottom of one wing.
"It's lit so you can see the jagged shadow," LaBar said.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
badams@centralmaine.com