I would first like to thank Greg Biggs and all others that took the time to respond to my request for info on my Confederate flag. Including, Tom, Josh, Ken and Bob. Your expertise and knowledge in this area is greatly appriciated. In answer to some of your questions, The flag was obtained from a very, very small local N.J.museum. I had stopped by with a friend out of curiosity.(this was about 11 years ago, we hit a few dead ends in our research, and with no internet then, (I guess Al Gore hadn''t invented it yet as he claims, ha ha ) we put it away until I recently came about it again and started the search for info once again. The flag was discovered in a trunk in the museum (not out on display) (yes, why not ?) my friend, the Civil War buff saw it and said it looked like a Confederate Battle flag, We contacted the "manager / historian / curator" (same guy) and offered to buy it for $100.00 dollars, to our surprise as well, he agreed ??!!. The flag had a tag on it saying it was "brought back from the civil war" and the family's name. Our research began, quite fun I might add. THE CURATOR DID NOT SAY it was from the battle of Chancellorsville,(sorry) my friend thought it might be, since we obtained the solders military records and records show he was in that battle. The solder was in Company B 30 reg't New Jersey, infantry, he was a wagoneer and Pvt.
My friend took it to Getty'sburg to a civil war shop and the owner there said it was probably from the CVA Confederate Vet's Assoc. made after the war but still very old and maybe worth $600-$800, I guess we should have taken the deal and ran ! I guess at this point, contacting a textiles expert to date the fabric will give us some idea when it was actually made. Again, gentleman, I thank you very much for your assistance in my research, it's all very facinating. When my daughter was in elementary school I actually brought the flag to her school for a "show and tell" with others Civil War memoribilia from my friend; uniforms, belt buckles, sword,etc, it was quite a display, the childrens faces said it all ! To educate them and raise their interest and awareness about the Civil war was quite a rewarding experience, let us never forget those soldiers that lost their lives in this war I told them, the were all quite moved by the presentation ! This whole experience has certainly educated and enriched my knowledge about the war as well. The childrens "thank you notes" were priceless.
Not sure what I'll do with the flag at this point, probably try to buy my friend out for his $50.00 share and keep it. Thank you again for taking the time and for all your advice.
Respectfully,
Allan Bleich