Ken,

As you know there was also a flag from the Pickens Sentinels found left behind in one of the forts near Fort Magruder at Willamsburg. I forget the capturing unit (I do have their report) and the date and time it was taken, but this might have preceded the capture of the flag Custer took there as well as the 5th NC State Troops ANV silk flag taken by the 5th Wisconsin Infantry.

I have been emailing the historian at Appomattox about the VA state flag and based on my read of the reports from the Union attack and Confederate counter-thrust, the 5th NCST and 24th VA Infantry took the bulk of the fighting and casualties there. The CS attack was not well coordinated and these two regiments moved in piecemeal and were accordingly cut up. If this VA state flag was taken at Williamsburg, then I think it came from the 24th Virginia.

A VA flag with the "Sic Semper Tyrannis" was given by Libby Custer to the National Museum in 1912 for a loan and a Washington DC newspaper article of the time described this aspect of the flag. It was not an ANV flag. Is it the flag at the park today? Who knows. But this flag does have a direct Custer connection but not from Namozine Church in 1865. The only two CS flags mentioned being taken at Williamsburg on the OR reports were those of the Pickens Sentinels and the 5th NCST. The Custer captured flag is not mentioned. This is probably a good clue that he was allowed to keep it even after turning it in to Hancock.

One correction to Frederick's excellent account of the escape from Petersburg; The Tennessee Brigade of that time was under the command of William McComb of Clarksville where I live today. It was an amalgamation of Bushrod Johnson's and Archer's TN Brigades. They lost some flags on April 2 along Hatcher's Run, another bad day for the ANV and not just in flag losses.

Greg Biggs