Posted on 06/30/2008 12:35:57 PM PDT by MplsSteve
A woolen flag with cotton stars flew the night Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson caught a bullet in the arm -- a quiet witness to one of history's great accidents.
You can see it inside a case on the third floor of the N.C. Museum of History, hanging over a Confederate ammunition chest recovered from a Johnston County farm: the flag carried by the regiment that inadvertently shot the man who was arguably the South's No. 2 general.
The museum just bought the flag for a price Curator of Military History Tom Belton would describe only as a bargain.
Any price would be puny for such a find, he said, calling the flag one of the greatest acquisitions in his 30-year career. No matter what you feel for the rebel soldiers who carried it -- pride, disdain, boredom -- the flag can light the imagination.
"It's the flag that was flying over the regiment that mortally wounded Stonewall Jackson," said Tom Walsh, the New Jersey professor who sold it. "It opens up all sorts of what-ifs."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsobserver.com ...
Comments or opinions - anyone?
The 45th North Carolina had a flag until one of my ancestors took it.
No one can look at the marker at Gettysburg that marks the farthest point of the advance of the North Carolinians on July 3, 1863 during Pickett’s Charge, and ever doubt the bravery of the Tarheel men.
“Sharpsburg” on the battle flag refers to “Antietam”, which is what the North calls that battle.
ping
Ping
So give it back.
Why was it that the Confederates named battles after the nearest town, but the Union forces named battles after the nearest river?
I know it's available on YouTube if you search for it....
Dixie Ping
The 1st Minnesota Infantry was at Pickett’s Charge on July 3rd and captured the flag of the 28th Virginia Infantry.
We never returned it and now it’s on occasional display at the Minnesota State History Center.
I’ve seen it before. It’s quite stirring and never fails to turn heads when it’s on display.
I don;t really know why they named the battles differently. I guess both sides don’t meet beforehand and say “let’s call it this!”
It probably has something to do with how each side remembered the place, naming it for a geographic feature or town to disintiguish it from other sites in a series of running battles.
Interestingly enough, both sides referred to Gettysburg as “Gettysburg”.
The “Mannassas Junction” on the NC-18th battle flag refers to Bull Run, another incidence of the battle naming process you mentioned.
Excellent question!
I’m not sure either. Maybe some other Freeper knows the answer to that one.
I recall that. It was probably one of the few decent scenes in the movie.
For some reason, “Gods & Generals” bored me. Not because it was four hours long. Not because of a lack of battle scenes.
It just bored me.
Although the actor who played Stonewall Jackson should have gotten an Oscar nomination for it. He was good.
How about respect?
This from the great grandson of a German immigrant who served in Union regiments from drummer boy a Pea Ridge to rifleman at Petersburg.
ping
I agree that Stonewall Jackson was the South’s second best general. I would argue that the first was Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Had Jackson survived, I have little doubt that Gettysburg would have been a Confederate victory and the South would have won the war.
‘nother Dixie ping!
Excellent Post!
I do believe that Gettysburg would have been a Southern victory - provided that Jackson didn’t die at Chancellorsville.
But whether that would have translated into the South winning the war, that’s a little more of a stretch.
The North would have fought on. Lincoln probably couldn’t have contemplated surrendering to Jefferson Davis. Vicksburg has fallen, eliminating a source of re-supply for the Confederate armies. The naval blockade was starting to kick in about that time.
There is the million dollar question of whether the South could have continued to win victories leading up the Presidential election in 1864. Part of me thinks they couldn’t have.
Lee would have been pushed into confronting the Union Army again somewhere in the North or one of the border states like Maryland. There’s no guarantee that (even if Jackson were still alive) that he would have won another large-scale battle that decisively turned the tide towards a surrender of the North.
But then again, who knows...?!
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