Good grief!

I have one account that states that when challenged by the Union cavalry Rucker stated he was with the 12th Tennessee - not his escort or anything else. The officer he challenged replied that he was with the 12th Tennessee Cavalry - Union! The fight was on from there.

Several of my Tennessee sources clearly state that the two 12th Tennessee Cavalry regiments squared off at the barricades and that Rucker was wounded and captured. I am citing bonafide sources for this - like the state centennial commission's books "Tennesseans In The Civil War" which was compiled from the Complied Service Records, the Official Records and other sources. I am not closed minded at all and am only going by what the sources tell me.

We know the flag in Alabama came in 1864 to Rucker. That tells us nothing about the flag you have however. Nothing! If there was any unique flag with Rucker than I lean much more towards this one being there since it was not captured and the 7th Alabama Cavalry was still part of Rucker's Brigade at the time.

PROVE to me that the flag you have was at the Barricades south of Nashville on December 16, 1864 and I will happily join with you in rejoicing that a valuable flag has indeed been properly identified. Cite sources, cite descriptions of the flag taken in letters, diaries, etc. We already know that the Yankees mis-identified flags all the time by a cursory look through the War Department listing. That does not sound close minded at all to me.

There have been several flags out there that the identity has been changed by further research - some by me, some by Howie, some by Ken and some by other researchers. But they brought proof to the table that was signed off by others before any ID was changed at all. That's how historians work Ben.

And just so you know, I will be mentioning all of this in the Tennessee flags book including the possibility that the flag taken there was not that for the 12th TN Cavalry (CS) as we have no proven surviving flag to go by.

Best,

Greg Biggs