I'm the "guy" who has caused all this fuss by questioning what passes for "conventional wisdom" in identifing the First National flag in question labeled "Dallas Artillery" as that of Hart's Arkansas Battery, believing it instead to be that reported as abandoned on the field by Good's Texas Battery, aka "The Dallas Artillery". Here are the 8 "facts" I posed to Greg Biggs regarding this:

1) Capt. John J. Good admits in a letter to his wife written shortly after the battle that the flag of his unit, well known as the Dallas Artillery, was inadvertently left lying on the ground at Pea Ridge Mar. 8, 1862.

2) Missouri troops siezed the ground occupied successively by Good's battery and Hart's battery and along with it several of Hart's guns.

3) Federal officers Siegel and Osterhaus claimed in their after-action reports to having captured guns of Hart's Battery, the Dallas Artillery. ( Just how did they "know" it was the Dallas Artillery, I wonder? )

4) A flag bearing the legend Dallas Artillery turned up in the collection of the Missouri Historical Society.

5) Said flag corresponds to others carried on the field of Pea Ridge by Confederate troops present at the time of the battle.

6) On the face of it there is nothing to connect this flag with any particular time, place, or event, save for the legend, Dallas Artillery.

7) No known description or representation of the flag or color of either unit is now known to exist.

8) Other than the reports of Siegel and Osterhaus, there is no other intimation of the loss of a flag by Hart's battery. ( i.e. by Hart himself or any of his superiors. )

In a telephone conversation this morning with Dr. William Shea, author of the standard history of the Pea Ridge Campaign, he stated he was familliar with the flag, now in the collection of the Old State House in Little Rock, and that he thought my interpretation of events surrounding it were indeed possible.

What do YOU think?