A rare Confederate flag, captured by Vermont soldiers during Pickett’s Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg, is being sold at auction by Fleischer’s Auctions in Columbus, Ohio, later this month.
The trophy of war is the only known privately-owned Confederate battle flag captured during Pickett’s Charge.
It was carried by the 11th Virginia Infantry and “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,” according to auction house president Adam Fleischer. “That officer, after capturing the flag, was killed himself.”
Pickett’s Charge was a desperate and disastrous maneuver on July 3, 1864, the third and final day of the Battle of Gettysburg and is considered a turning point in the American Civil War. More than half of the men ordered to frontally assault the Union lines were either killed, wounded, or captured.
Recruited in Windsor and Windham Counties, organized at Brattleboro, and mustered in October 23, 1862 for nine months, the 16th Vermont Volunteer Infantry Regiment moved to Washington, D. C., October 24-27. Late that December they repulsed an attack on Northern Virgina’s Fairfax County Court House by J.E.B. Stuart’s Cavalry.
The marched to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania from June 25 until July 1st, the first day of Battle of Gettysburg. The 13th, 14th and 16th Vermont Regiments (2nd Vermont Brigade) played a pivotal role in the Union repulse of Pickett’s Charge on the afternoon of July 3.
The 13th and 16th regiments flanked a confederate brigade as it approached Cemetery Ridge, then the 16th wheeled about, and joined by the 14th, stopped the advance of Cadmus M. Wilcox’s brigade, capturing hundreds of Virginians.
The 16th then went in pursuit of Lee from July 4th through the 18th, when they took a train from to Baltimore, reaching draft riot torn New York City on July 20th. The arriving back in Brattleboro on July 21st and were officially mustered out.
The United States lost about 1,500 soldiers at Pickett’s Charge. During the course of their time in the war, the 16th lost one officer and 23 enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and one officer and 48 enlisted men by disease. After their first tour many of the men reenlisted.
More than 23,000 United State soldiers were killed at Gettysburg, making it the deadliest battle in American history.
En route to Gettysburg, the enemy Army of Northern Virginia kidnapped between 40 and nearly 60 Black civilians and sent them south into slavery. The war ended almost two years later on May 26, 1865 – more than 365,000 U.S. soldiers and sailors died during the war.
The flag (listed here) will be featured during Fleischer’s Auctions’ two-day “Historical Americana and African American History,” taking place April 25 and 26.
Illustrations, from above: Painting of the 2nd Vermont Brigade at Pickett’s Charge by Michael J. Middleton; and the Confederate flag captured by Vermont soldiers during Pickett’s Charge.
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