RARE CONFEDERATE SILK BATTLE FLAG CAPTURED AT THE BATTLE OF GEORGIA LANDING (LABADIEVILLE)

Frame: 50 1/2 by 44 1/2 in. 

Attributed by Howard Michael Madaus to Captain George Ralston’s Mississippi Battery, Battery H, 1st Mississippi Light Artillery; earlier associated with the 24th Louisiana Volunteer Infantry (“Crescent Regiment”)

A rare silk Confederate battle flag almost certainly carried by Captain George Ralston’s Mississippi Battery, Battery H, 1st Mississippi Light Artillery, and captured at the Battle of Georgia Landing (Labadieville), Louisiana, on October 27, 1862. Still affixed to the flag is a wartime note describing the circumstances of its capture. Dated December 19, 1862, written from the Provost Office, and addressed simply, “Dear Father,” the note identifies the object as a “Battle Flag” used by the Rebels at the battle of “Labardieville” and records its transmission northward through W. L. Gorman of 158 Division Street, New York City. Research has indicated that the flag was captured by soldiers in the 12th Connecticut Infantry and further investigation may clarify their exact identity.

The flag would be significant even as a captured trophy of war, but its importance is considerably enhanced by the scarcity of its pattern. Constructed of a dark blue silk field measuring approximately 34 3/4 by 43 inches overall, it is traversed corner to corner by a bold white silk St. Andrew’s cross, its arms approximately 5 3/4 to 6 inches in width, and bordered on all four sides by a narrow silk edging described in accompanying research as red, now mellowed and oxidized with age to a warm brownish tone. Associated particularly with Mississippi commands, flags of this pattern are seldom encountered and rarely held in private hands.

This flag’s significance is further strengthened by its lengthy and well-documented provenance. Reportedly first appearing publicly in June 1966, when it was offered as item 1194A in Norm Flayderman’s Catalogue No. 74, the flag has been the subject of sustained scholarly attention now for over 60 years. In notes prepared in 1969 that accompany this lot, Madaus tentatively identified the flag as that of the 24th Louisiana Volunteer Infantry, the celebrated “Crescent Regiment,” observing that contemporary accounts of the engagement mention the capture of the regiment’s color bearer, though not necessarily the loss of the color itself. By 1994, after further research that also accompanies this lot, Howard Michael Madaus advanced a more specific attribution, assigning the flag to Captain George Ralston’s Mississippi Battery, Battery H, 1st Mississippi Light Artillery, and relating it to the material published in his foundational studies of Confederate battle flags.

Fought on October 27, 1862, the Battle of Georgia Landing, also known as Labadieville, formed part of the Union offensive into the Bayou Lafourche district, an operation designed to extend Federal control deeper into southern Louisiana. Advancing south from Donaldsonville, Brig. Gen. Godfrey Weitzel’s column met the Confederate force of Brig. Gen. Alfred Mouton near Labadieville and, after a sharp engagement, drove it from the field. Though modest in scale, the battle carried real strategic consequence: it opened the Lafourche country to Federal occupation, strengthened Union control over an agriculturally and logistically important corridor, and further eroded Confederate power in the lower Mississippi theater. Its importance for the present flag is therefore considerable, for it anchors the object to a named battle of genuine operational consequence rather than to generalized wartime use alone.

The 12th Connecticut played a direct and important part in the Union victory at Georgia Landing. Initially held in reserve, the regiment was thrown into the action when Brig. Gen. Godfrey Weitzel determined that the decisive fighting would occur on the west bank of Bayou Lafourche. Eight companies were sent across an improvised flatboat bridge, while the remaining two were left to help secure the rear, and the regiment was then aligned on the right of the 8th New Hampshire in the main Federal advance against the Confederate position near Ralston’s battery. Advancing through cane fields, ditches, and tangled ground under artillery and musket fire, the 12th participated in the attack that helped drive Mouton’s command from the field. Connecticut’s own regimental history remembered Labadieville as the 12th’s first battle and stressed the dramatic moment in which it crossed into action with colors displayed. The regiment paid heavily for that initiation, losing twenty men killed, wounded, and missing.

Provenance: Recorded by Howard Michael Madaus as appearing in Norm Flayderman’s Catalogue No. 74 (June 1966), item 1194A; later in the collections of George Gorman, Philip Baron Ennis, William Wells, and Harlan Crow, before subsequent private ownership.

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.

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