The Illinois State Military Museum unveiled a recently restored Civil War-era flag during a ceremony Saturday at the museum, 1301 N. MacArthur Blvd.
The flag of the 114th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment is on display after nearly four years of restoration efforts, according to Mark Whitlock, museum director. The flag is part of a Civil War display on the museum’s second floor.
Jim Patton, who is regimental quartermaster sergeant of the reactivated 114th, a Civil War reenactment group, said the flag was stored for decades in the Hall of Flags in the Howlett Building. However, it became tattered over the years, sometimes after people cut small pieces out of the flag as souvenirs, Patton said.
After it was removed from the Howlett Building, the flag was put in climate-controlled storage, because at that time there was no state or federal money for conservation efforts, Patton said.
“The gauntlet was thrown down to the 114th, because there are several of us who volunteer at the military museum,” he said. “We took four flags out to New York for conservation assessment.”
The group raised the $19,000 necessary to restore the flag, a process that took about seven years, Patton said. All funding came from private donations.
Michael Vizral, a private with the 114th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry Reactivated, called Saturday’s ceremony a “big deal” for him.
“This is one of the original battle flags that the original members carried in battle,” he said. “It’s an emotional thing for a person like me, for whom history is important.
“The veterans in that war are long gone, so the physical artifacts, the touchstones that we have to look at, we need to care for the way those guys would have cared for it a century and a half ago.”
Rhys Saunders can be reached at 788-1521.