The Indiana War Memorial Commission has loaned two Civil War-era flags to the Wayne County Historical Museum and Morrisson-Reeves Library. The flags are the national colors of two regiments that trained in Richmond.

The flags were delivered on an appropriate day -- the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War.

“We have 400-plus flags in the collection,” said Ethan Wright, the museum director of the Indiana War Memorial and the Colonel Eli Lilly Civil War Museum in Indianapolis. “Basically, after the war, the adjutant general of Indiana presented them to the governor.”

Morrisson-Reeves will display the 36th Indiana National Flag and the historical museum will display the 57th Indiana National Colors. Both flags are on loan through at least May 13.

Wayne County had about 5,000 volunteers in the War of the Rebellion, said Steve Martin, a reference librarian at Morrisson-Reeves Library. There were an estimated 500 casualties, he said.

The flags are among 25 the commission has restored as part of its “Save the Colors” project, in which a conservationist is preparing “the most historically significant and/or the ones that needed the attention the most” for display, Wright said.

Restoration costs between $5,000 and $25,000, Wright said.