Call me an ornery Yankee, but by all accounts this was the final Confederate flag:
Now a happy resident of Virginia, this native New Yorker is almost comfortable with living in the formal, if not the Deep, South. It is a visually and emotionally breathtaking part of our country, featuring the Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area. The history here is both from the War of Independence and the subsequent Civil War. Some prefer to emphasize Virginia’s role in the latter, but all celebrate the former. Folks who focus on the 19th century range from Civil war re-enactors to the more aggressive characters who seem to want to raise the Confederate battle flag instead of, or at least along with, the U.S. flag. I will not link to that organization, but the “Virginia flaggers” claim to have raised 27 giant Confederate battle flags across the Commonwealth, including on this hallowed ground.
The claim here is that honoring the Confederate battle flag honors a noble history. But I keep calling it the battle flag for a reason. The flag that comes to mind, the one you see across the South, is not the flag of the Confederacy, and it never was.1 The flag you see, which I will not portray here, is the specific battle flag of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. (Other Confederate state armies used different flags.) The “flaggers” are therefore not honoring the broader Confederacy or its government, they are raising a battle flag last carried by the Virginians who took up arms against the United States.
But back to those 27 battle flags. Interesting number, that. The 28th Virginia battle flag was issued to George Pickett’s division of the Army of Northern Virginia, and exited combat following Pickett’s famous charge when Private Marshall Sherman from 1st Minnesota took the flag away from Lt. John Abbott Independence Lee of Virginia. Accounts differ on exactly how the flag was obtained, but Sherman was later awarded the Medal of Honor for his capture of the flag.
So where is the 28th Virginia battle flag now? Why, in St. Paul, Minnesota of course. The somewhat tattered flag rests comfortably as part of the Minnesota Historical Society’s permanent collection. In 1905, a Congress resolved that captured flags be returned to the governors of formerly seceded states, but for over 100 years, Minnesota has simply declined to do so. Have they been asked? Why, yes.
For more than 100 years, Virginia has been asking that Minnesota return it, according to a St. Paul Pioneer Press report. Various groups have requested for its return in 1961, 2000, 2003, and 2013. In 1998, Virginia Civil War reenactors threatened legal action over the flag. Each time Minnesota has refused. When, in 2000, Virginia legislators asked once again that it be returned, Gov. Jesse Ventura said, “Absolutely not. Why? I mean, we won.”
Yes. Yes we did. While every history will have its revisionists, we should keep in mind arguments about the war being about “state’s rights,” constitute half the truth. It is always accurate to complete the sentence with “to enslave human beings.” To quote Alexander Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy:
Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and moral condition. [Applause.] This, our new Government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.
What emerged from the conflict was a government restored and more true to the original language of the United States Declaration of Independence.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
The tragedy of the shortened Reconstruction Era ensured that Black people would not fully realize these rights for another century, during which legal and physical barriers became entrenched such that these rights are limited even today. It would take a couple of generations to acknowledge that women were also created equal, and endowed also with these rights. Quite recently, women became less equal in the United States again, as their right to manage their reproductive healthcare was removed as a nationally honored one.
Nevertheless, the language in our founding documents continues to represent the ideals of our nation. As one example: while a recent Supreme Court decision deviates somewhat from the specific ideal that no person is above the law, the reaction among the legal profession and the Associate Justices in the minority opinion is remarkable and heartening, reflecting these original values remain deep in the American soul. Another example is the near-universally negative reaction to the president of the Heritage Foundation Kevin Roberts threatening physical violence against his political adversaries. Few seek civil conflict aside from an aggrieved and shrinking, if loud, minority.
It is fashionable to focus on the ideals that divide Americans, which may be summed up with E uno plura, or “out of one, many.” For one, a journalism industry that compensates based on attention necessarily will focus on information that will keep readers afraid. Fear transfixes attention. Putting the Roberts’ quote on a near endless loop guarantees audience engagement, rewarding the media outlets monetarily.
However. We are more than our anxiety. Where the Supreme Court removes a woman’s right to manage her own healthcare, movements spring up to place that right on ballots across the country. There is backlash to the unpopular, and the American ideals continue to guide us.
The majority of Americans, I believe, remain true to both the original ideals of our nation and to our continued journey through this hallowed ground. This weekend, and forward, let us celebrate our continued hallowed journey towards E Pluribus Unum.
Some argue that this did represent the Confederate flag “eventually” because towards the end of the war, the South rallied around the successes of Lee’s army. Indeed, the battle flag differed from the Confederate government flag because that one too closely resembled the Union flag - this can be confusing during a land battle.
Thank you for this. I love that Minnesota story!
John - Once again I love your work here. A similar white rag, hoisted on a stick, was used at the onset of the Civil War by the first three enslaved men to appear at the main gate at Fort Monroe in May of 1861 to request asylum. It was after midnight and the full moon illuminated their outlines as they walked across the causeway carrying this flag, asking for the first Union Army-sanctioned freedom. So this flag could as easily be the flag of freedom and a symbol of self-emancipation, too.