A rare artifact from the Civil War is set to go up for auction later this month in Columbus: a regimental battle flag of the 11th Virginia Infantry, which was captured during Pickett's Charge. The desperate maneuver on the third and final day of the Battle of Gettysburg was a disaster for the Confederacy and a turning point in the war.
The flag will be featured during Fleischer’s Auctions’ two-day spring premier auction, “Historical Americana and African American History,” which is taking place April 25 and 26.
Click here to find the flag's auction listing.
Adam Fleischer is president of Fleischer's Auctions.
Matthew Rand: I want to start with Pickett's Charge. For those of us whose recollection of middle school social studies might be a little hazy, can you give us a quick refresher on the assault and why this was so pivotal?
Adam Fleischer: Most historians consider the Battle of Gettysburg to be a turning point in the Civil War. It marked the Confederate Army's last major attempt to invade the North. And Pickett's charge was really considered the focal point of that battle. It was a failed Confederate assault led by General George Pickett against various Union positions. It resulted in massive Confederate casualties and really, also represented the high-water mark of the Confederacy, because after the unsuccessful charge, the Confederate Army's momentum declined.
Matthew Rand: What do we know about this specific battle flag captured during the fighting and why is it so rare?
Adam Fleischer: So it was carried by the 11th Virginia Infantry during Pickett's Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg. It was advanced by several successive color bearers who were either wounded or killed before it was ultimately captured by an officer in the 16th Vermont Infantry. That officer, after capturing the flag, was killed himself. It's important in that respect as a historic artifact, but it's also incredibly important because it was, prior to its discovery several years ago, the only unaccounted for flag that was captured from a regiment in Pickett's division during the Battle of Gettysburg. Today, it is the only privately owned example. All the others are institutionalized.
Matthew Rand: So it's been in private collection all these years and ended up surfacing just a few years ago. I understand there's a nearly identical flag also from a Virginia unit, a different unit that was also captured the same day during the Battle of Gettysburg, residing to this day in the state of Minnesota.
Adam Fleischer: It's a captured flag from another Virginia regiment, and it was captured by a Minnesota infantry unit. Now at some point in time, the state of Virginia requested the flag to be returned, but Minnesota has said that they're going to keep it, because as their governor said at the time, they view it as a trophy of war.
Matthew Rand: I believe it was Jesse Ventura, who was governor at the time, who basically said, "Why would we give it back? We won.”
Adam Fleischer: That's exactly right.
Matthew Rand: We, of course, can't talk about the Confederate battle flag without also discussing the enduring controversy over what this flag represents, either as a symbol of slavery and racism, or (what some would argue is) that of Southern heritage. How do historians parse all this and try to contextualize these Confederate relics, and what they can still teach us about our country's past?
Adam Fleischer: The artifact that we're offering is just contextualized by the fact that it's a historic artifact. It's not a monument. And as you can imagine, we put this online recently and it stoked a lot of controversy. There are those who think it should be destroyed, even as a historic artifact. But I guess what I would remind them is that this was a flag that a northern officer lost his life to capture. And so it not only represents the Confederacy, but also the heroism of union soldiers who captured it.
In my opinion, without question, it's the rarest historic artifact ever offered from the Civil War era. The Battle of Gettysburg looms large in American history, and this is an incredible piece.
