EXCEPTIONALLY WELL-DOCUMENTED 19TH ALABAMA INFANTRY CONFEDERATE BATTLE FLAG CAPTURED AT BATTLE OF EZRA CHURCH

19th Alabama Infantry Battle Flag. Army of Tennessee Pattern. August Depot. Augusta, Georgia / Dalton, Georgia, issued 29 February 1864. Red wool bunting field, dark blue wool bunting St. Andrew’s cross, white cotton edging, thirteen white cotton stars, with inked inscriptions regarding Union capture: ”Captured By Corp. Stephen Calkin & Private James A. Pulliam / Co. H 48th Ills V.V.I. July 28th 1864". Approx. 50 x 35 1/2 in., framed to 60 x 44 in. 

A rare Civil War Confederate battle flag that was captured by Union forces, this striking Army of Tennessee-pattern example was issued to the 19th Alabama Infantry at Dalton, Georgia, on 29 February 1864. It is constructed in the classic western theater pattern: a vivid red field charged with a dark blue saltire edged in white and bearing thirteen white stars. Seminal flag historian, Howard Madaus, was said to have considered this very flag one of the most well-documented examples he had encountered.

Accompanying scholarship by flag expert Greg Biggs attributes the flag to manufacture in Augusta, Georgia, likely at or for the Augusta Clothing Depot, as part of the early 1864 effort to re-equip General Joseph E. Johnston’s Army of Tennessee. Biggs further notes that these flags were produced under contract by the local flag-maker Jacob B. Platt. Particularly significant to the flag’s history and provenance are the surviving ink inscriptions on the white edging of the cross: the regimental abbreviation “19TH ALA” appears on the flag, while later inscriptions record its Union captors, Corporal Stephen Calkins and Private James A. Pulliam of Company H, 48th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, together with the date of capture, 28 July 1864, at the Battle of Ezra Church near Atlanta.

The 19th Alabama Infantry’s wartime history was closely bound to the principal campaigns of the Army of Tennessee. Organized early in the conflict, the 19th Alabama served in the Confederate armies operating in the West and, by 1864, formed part of the force General Joseph E. Johnston struggled to rebuild and re-equip in the face of relentless Federal pressure. Like many veteran commands then emerging from the attritional disasters of Chattanooga and the winter retreat into north Georgia, the regiment entered the spring of 1864 battered but still intact, and in need of fresh colors worthy of continued field service. It was in that context that this flag was issued at Dalton, Georgia, on 29 February 1864, through a requisition signed by regimental quartermaster Edward G. Bradley, as part of the larger program by which Johnston’s army received new battle flags in anticipation of the coming campaign.

In material and form, the flag is a classic and highly desirable Army of Tennessee pattern: a rectangular red wool bunting field, charged with a dark blue St. Andrew’s cross edged in white cotton and bearing thirteen white stars. Its design belongs to the family of battle flags adopted across the western Confederate armies after First Manassas and later standardized, with local variation, for the Army of Tennessee. The accompanying research by Howard Madaus and Greg Biggs places this particular example within the important group of early 1864 depot-made flags produced for Johnston’s reorganized army, and more specifically associates it with manufacture in Augusta, Georgia. 

The 19th Alabama carried this flag during one of the decisive sequences of the war in the West. Johnston’s army fell back from Dalton through the rugged hill country of north Georgia, contesting Sherman’s advance in a series of hard maneuvers and engagements before the defense of Atlanta passed to John Bell Hood in July 1864. It was under Hood’s aggressive new command that the regiment met the action that would forever define this flag’s history. On 28 July 1864, at the Battle of Ezra Church, west of Atlanta, Confederate forces launched repeated assaults against well-posted Union troops who had entrenched along commanding ground. Among the attacking formations was the 19th Alabama, advancing with the Army of Tennessee in one of the bloodiest and most ill-starred offensive actions of the Atlanta Campaign. There the regiment suffered heavily, and there this flag was lost in combat.

Its captors were two enlisted men of Company H, 48th Illinois Volunteer Infantry: Corporal Stephen Calkins and Private James A. Pulliam. Their names remain physically upon the flag itself, preserved in the ink inscriptions written along the white edging of the cross. The 48th Illinois, a veteran Federal regiment with a distinguished combat record in the western armies, had seen severe service well before the Atlanta operations, and at Ezra Church its men helped repulse the determined Confederate assaults. That two soldiers of Company H were able to seize and identify the colors of the 19th Alabama in the midst of that struggle speaks to the ferocity and closeness of the fighting. In Civil War combat, the taking of an enemy battle flag was no ordinary trophy. Colors served as the visual heart of a regiment, the point around which men dressed their ranks, aligned their advance, and measured their honor. To capture one was to perform an act of conspicuous gallantry under fire; to lose one was a regimental catastrophe.

It is no wonder that Howard Madaus reportedly regarded it as one of the best-documented Civil War battle flags he had examined: few flags so vividly unite textile survival, depot history, regimental service, battlefield event, and named capture. From its manufacture in Augusta, to its issuance in Dalton, to its presence in the smoke and violence before Atlanta, this flag precisely traces the wartime path of the 19th Alabama Infantry and the destructive climax of the Army of Tennessee’s struggle in Georgia.

A full condition report and associated provenance is available upon request. Serious bidders are encouraged to register to bid in-person or over the phone.

Note: This lot cannot be packaged and shipped in-house. Successful bidders winning items marked as being packaged and shipped by a third-party service are responsible for paying the third party directly. We are happy to offer complimentary drop-off service to local third-party packing/shipping companies in Columbus, Ohio. 

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Flags, Patriotic Textiles]