A flag belonging to the 95th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment is on display at the Boone County (IL) Historical Museum.

You don’t have to be a history buff or someone who loves Boone County like me to be impressed.

The newest addition to the Boone County Historical Museum is one of the oldest artifacts. It is the official flag of the 95th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment that fought in the Civil War.

It is not a replica. Nor a copy.

It is the flag that young men rallied around during many of the significant battles of the Civil War. It will be officially dedicated at an open house from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 30, at the museum, 311 Whitney Blvd., Belvidere. This celebration is well-timed as we are acknowledging the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.

For many, like me, seeing the blue flag with its colorful eagle will be an emotional experience.

“The flags were carried by a group of men called the ‘Color Guard,’ ” said former museum board president and local Civil War historian Frank Crawford. “It was considered both an honor as well as very dangerous to carry the flags.

“The flags were always as close as possible to the center of the regiment during combat and were a visual connection for everyone so they would literally know where they were during the battle.”

The 95th was organized in Rockford, and men were recruited from Boone and McHenry counties. It was mustered into service on Sept. 4, 1862.

The 95th’s first major campaign was Gen. Ulysses Grant’s assault on Vicksburg, Miss., in May 1863.

The men of the 95th were led by Col. Thomas Humphrey, who wrote in his account of the battle that his men were “exposed to a direct and concentrated fire of musketry and a murderous enfilading fire from the enemy’s batteries ... Being unsupported, I deemed it rashness to proceed further, but held my position with colors planted within 100 yards of the enemy’s lines.”

The “colors planted” refers to the regiment’s flag.

The 95th also fought in the Red River Campaign in the spring of 1864, Brice’s Crossroads on June 10, 1864, the Nashville Campaign in November 1864 and the Mobile, Ala., Campaign in March-April 1865, as well as other places.

Of the 1,324 volunteers who enlisted, seven officers and 77 enlisted men were killed in action or died of their wounds. Disease took even more — one officer and 204 enlisted men.

One of the officers killed in action was Col. Humphrey, who died at Brice’s Crossroads.

After the war, regiments were ordered to turn in their flags to the office of the state adjutant general. Two flags from the 95th were among them.

Later, they were displayed in a hall of flags at Memorial Hall in Springfield. In the 1920s, an effort to preserve the flags or “colors” for history began, but it was a costly process, and eventually the McHenry County Civil War Round Table and the Boone County Historical Museum began to raise funds for their restoration.

The cost was estimated at $17,000.

Both flags still belong to the state, but each county has one on loan.

The 95th was mustered out of service Aug. 17, 1865, in Galveston, Texas, after covering 9,960 miles.

One of the flags that our Boone County ancestors carried to that day can be seen. And it is a sight to behold.