The returned War Department had this flag listed captured and returned. I just now got an email back from the Maine people and they said no 1st Maine Infantry flag was captured. It certainly was not the 90 day regiment, they never saw any action.
"1st Maine Infantry, 2nd Brigade, 4th Division" is what it says.
The 1st Maine Heavy Artillery very briefly was in a 2nd Brigade, 4th Division at Spotsylvania in their first battle.
Then there is the 1st Maine Consolidated, 5th-6th-7th Maine put together in the summer of 1864.
There is no history on this flag of where it was captured, who captured it or how it got to the War department.
Did the 1st Maine Heavy Artillery lose a flag at Petersburg when they lost 600 men out of 900? ( I am bit off on the losses but they were very high).
The 1st Maine Infantry (90 Days) many of the men transferred to the 10th Maine. I noticed that the 10th Maine fought at Winchester on May 25th, 1862. Later the men transferred to the 29th Maine.
Here is the email I just got from the Maine people:
"I'm glad you like the web site! It has all of our CW flags that have any kind of attribution whatever. (We have a few more, but they are so fragmentary that we will likely never know who used them). So I'm afraid that we don't have any sign of the flag you seek. We have no flags at all from the short-lived 1st ME Infantry. We have a few from the 1st HA, but they don't really fit the bill, I shouldn't think. And unfortunately, none of the flags we hold now have been linked to being a returned flag. While many of the CW flags wound up in the Hall of Flags in the State House during and after the war, many GAR posts also had flags. It may be that it wound up somewhere else?"
I wish I could be of more help! (and i'd love to find that flag!)
Best of luck with your search, and thanks for thinking of us!
Laurie
I am going to check to see if the 10th Maine had a flag of the 1st Maine Infantry they kept and used at the battle of Winchester on May 25th, 1862.
Well thank you for any help on this,
Shawn Prouty