Over the weekend I was contacted by a man claiming to have the early war battle flag of the 29th Tennessee. I am attaching the image and parts of his email describing the flag. So you know, the flag is not for sale. Quotes begin below
Ryan
I thought this would be of interest to some of you.
Martin
This is the only flag I own. It is hermetically sealed & custom preserved.
It came thru a deceased dealer friend of mine some 25-30 years ago. I believe it came out of a Tenn. Estate sale, but would not swear to it. I believe he told me that it had been wadded up in an old trunk with other discards when he found it. I had it framed later.
The flag particulars are:
Size: 22 ½” x 33”
Material: Heavy rough cotton ( I guess), definitely not silk. Hand sewn ( was told it was made by a lady/or ladies in Greenville, Tn. & given to regt.) .I’m sure they had more than one. Blue material is pieced in middle (guess they didn’t have a large enough piece).
Much more soiled than the photograph shows. Excellent condition, not frail or brittle. Stars & writing quite crude & only on one side. Metal fringe along edge made up of small sections say 6” long ( have been told this was a much earlier militia epaulette that was taken apart & used). Quite faded & tarnished.
The entire surface has what I believe is battle damage ( hard to see in photo). Many rips from shrapnel and many, many small holes which I guess would be shotgun pellets. A rip or so also goes thru both the background & the lettering on top of it. A star has the same situation. It’s definitely not just wear & tear.
That’s about all I can say about it. I thought you might be interested in seeing the pictures. I feel quite content that it is period, not post war. It has been looked at by many people years ago. I also don’t feel that it was made as a reunion piece. Way too crude and then there’s all the damaged described above. No U.S. War Dept. number, so was not officially captured. I guess it was just retired and taken home by someone when they got a bigger, newer one.