NY state to display Civil War flags from 1861

NY state to display Civil War flags from 1861

A Confederate flag with links to President Abraham Lincoln and the first Union officer killed in the Civil War will be the centerpiece of an exhibit featuring New York’s large collection of banners from the conflict, state officials said Thursday.

Soldier Holding Tattered Flag of the Eighth Pa Infantry, During Civil War


Buy This Allposters.com



The 14-foot-by-24-foot flag Col. Elmer Ellsworth was carrying after removing it from the roof of the Marshall House in Alexandria, Va. on May 24, 1861, will be part of an eight-flag exhibit opening July 12 in the “War Room” on the second floor of the state Capitol. It’s believed to be the first time the banner will be on public display since the war, according to Christopher Morton, assistant curator at the New York State Military Museum.

Ellsworth, the 24-year-old leader of a New York infantry regiment, was shot and killed by innkeeper James Jackson. Ellsworth had just descended from the roof of Jackson’s hotel where the staunch secessionist had been flying the flag since shortly after the war broke out in April 1861. A Union soldier fatally shot Jackson after the innkeeper fired a shotgun into Ellsworth’s chest.

With the war’s first major battles still weeks away, Ellsworth became the North’s “first martyr,” while Jackson received equal billing in the South.

Info NY state to display Civil War flags from 1861 from WashingtonPost.com