From June 8, 2011, Eastern Iowa Life.
Regiments marched off to war under battle flags, often made by groups of local women. In 1861, the women of Marengo, Iowa, gathered and sewed a 34-star flag and presented it to Co. B 28th Iowa who carried it into battle.
Today, after a circuitous route, decades of storage, the flag is in a custom-made wooden glass case at the Iowa Masonic Library in Cedar Rapids.
Back in 1861, there were no regulations as to star arrangement, other than 13 stripes and 34 stars. Even though the Southern states had left the Union, Lincoln would not allow their stars to be removed.
The 28th Iowa mustered in at Camp Pope in Iowa City, Iowa, October 1862. Then, they went on to Davenport and Helena, Arkansas where they joined Grant's Army for the Vicksburg Campaign. On May 16, 1863, at the Battle of Champion Hill the unit suffered 99 casualties and many bullets pierced the flag.
More to Come. --Old Secesh
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