The story goes that at Champion Hill, the color-bearer was wounded and clutched the flag to his bloody body to protect it, leaving a stain at the top right of the blue field. Shortly after the battle, James T. Sargent, a Master Mason who organized the unit and later became a first lieutenant (Lt. Sargent) resigned and returned to Marengo and brought the flag with him.
Later, he moved to Yankton in the Dakota Territory where he flew the flag every Memorial Day parade. After his death, his son, William F. Sargent, a Past Grand Master of South Dakota, presented the flag to the Oriental Consistory which stored it in the Masonic Temple at Yankton, SD.
In 2004, it was presented to the Grand Lodge of Iowa by Charles Kauffman, Past grand Master of SD who wanted it located closer to where it was made.
The flag has a circle of stars around 5 in the middle and others outside the circle.
The Iowa Masonic Library also has the drum used by Henry C. Thompson of Linn County and his 1917 pension certificate for $27 a month (raised to $30 a month in 1921.
The Story of a Flag Before and After War. --Old Secesh.
1 comment:
A very interesting story. I should knock on the door of the Masonic Library here in Cedar Rapids to see the flag.
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