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.
The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.
Showing posts with label 28th Iowa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 28th Iowa. Show all posts
Friday, April 27, 2012
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Iowa Flag Returns...and a Little of Flagmaking-- Part 1
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
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)