Be,

As follows:

>>>>Despite the capture of Donelson and its garrison why have none of these early Hardee flag captures come to light; or have they?>>>

One has - that of the 3rd Tennessee Infantry. Captured by the Michigan company of the 14th Missouri Infantry (Birge's Western Sharpshooters) it was sent to Michigan and reposed in a GAR hall for years until sold at a Heritage Auction at the Nashville CW show about ten years or so ago. It is in private hands in Nashville today.

I have period and post-war accounts of the Buckner/Hardee flags for the 18th and 32nd Tennessee. One was captured by a Union soldier (Indiana unit I think) and kept by him after the war. He brought it along to the reunion of his unit and showed it to his mates on the steamboat they were on and one of them grabbed it from him and tossed it into the pot-bellied stove where it burned up.

None of the Donelson flags made it to the US War Department and lots were taken there. I have a period newspaper account of two or three CS flags tossed into the river where they floated away. Others made it to the New York Sanitary fair (a company flag of the 23rd Mississippi) only never to be seen again. Some are still missing, like the one sent back to Fort Wayne, IN by a staff officer of the 44th Indiana who was a former congressman.

>>>>Where exactly is the Albert Sidney Johnston HQ? Does the structure still stand? >>>>

I asked some friends in Bowling Green about this and they say the home no longer stands but they know where it was.

Greg Biggs