{"id":256,"date":"2013-06-20T10:30:14","date_gmt":"2013-06-20T14:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/?p=256"},"modified":"2024-12-12T10:15:32","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T15:15:32","slug":"the-case-of-the-missing-flag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/the-case-of-the-missing-flag\/","title":{"rendered":"The case of the missing flag"},"content":{"rendered":"

By James Breig<\/a><\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
An officer rallies his troops with a flag during the Battle of Gettysburg (Image from Harper’s Weekly)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 150th<\/sup> anniversary of two significant battles of the Civil War \u2013 Gettysburg and Vicksburg \u2013 is fast approaching. Both occurred in July 1863, and both have fascinating flag stories connected to them.<\/p>\n

Take the case of the stolen Confederate battle flag. It was carried by the 14th<\/sup> Louisiana Regiment, which consisted mostly of Polish immigrants. Originally, the unit was called Sulakowski\u2019s Brigade.<\/p>\n

\"Col.<\/a>
Col. Zebulon York led the 14th Louisiana Regiment<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The regimental flag, which kept troops together in the midst of chaotic fighting, waved during battles in Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Spotsylvania and Winchester, all in Virginia. It was also taken into the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, where the 14th<\/sup> lost nearly one-fourth of its ranks. The soldier who bore the flag, Frederick Sontag, was wounded during the fight. Concerned that it might be seized by Union forces, he concealed the standard under his shirt.<\/p>\n

After the War Between the States, the flag was entrusted to a woman for safekeeping and didn\u2019t return to the regiment\u2019s veterans for about 25 years. It is said that the flag covered Jefferson Davis\u2019s coffin in 1889.<\/p>\n

Having survived battles and years of wear, the flag would suffer one final indignity: It was stolen in the 1980s by a volunteer at the New Orleans museum where it was housed.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The stolen Louisiana flag<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a result, while the decades passed, the flag of the 14th<\/sup> was again hidden from view, not by a wounded trooper this time or a protective woman, but by a guilt-ridden thief. After he died, his family, unaware that it had been stolen, sold the banner to a Civil War collector in Virginia.<\/p>\n

Then the FBI\u2019s Art Crime Team received a tip about the whereabouts of the flag. When the innocent collector was told about the theft, \u201che fully cooperated,\u201d said an agent, and the historic cloth was returned to the Civil War Museum at Confederate Memorial Hall in New Orleans, where it joined a collection of more than 140 other historic flags.<\/p>\n

An historian who helped to make the turnover possible said, \u201cI know the men [of the 14th<\/sup>] are smiling down from heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n

They might also be laughing in gleeful astonishment at the value assigned to their historic but threadbare flag: $250,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By James Breig The 150th anniversary of two significant battles of the Civil War \u2013 Gettysburg and Vicksburg \u2013 is fast approaching. Both occurred in July 1863, and both have fascinating flag stories connected to them. Take the case of the stolen Confederate battle flag. It was carried by the 14th Louisiana Regiment, which consisted… continue<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[75,43,74,42],"class_list":["post-256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history-lessons","tag-14th-louisiana","tag-civil-war","tag-confederate-battle-flag","tag-gettysburg"],"yoast_head":"\n14th Louisiana Regiment Battle Flag Theft & Recovery<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn about the theft and ultimate recovery of the Confederate battle flag of the 14th Louisiana Regiment flown during battle in 1863.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/the-case-of-the-missing-flag\/\" \/>\n<meta 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