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Society returns Confederate flag
Banner flown at siege of Port Hudson in 1863
By JAMES MINTON
jminton@theadvocate.com
Baker-Zachary bureau
Mike Fraering, historian at Port Hudson State Historic Site, examines a Confederate flag that flew Wednesday over the battlefield during a 48-day siege of the river fortifications in the Civil War. The Massachusetts Historical Society, which obtained the flag in 1921, recently donated it to the Louisiana Office of State Parks for display at the Port Hudson museum. PORT HUDSON -- The Massachusetts Historical Society recently returned a Confederate flag to the Civil War battlefield near Baton Rouge where it flew 140 years ago during the longest siege in the nation's military history. "This is a treasure that should be shared, but you can't use it to teach history if it's locked up in our vault," society Director William M. Fowler Jr. said Wednesday. "We're extremely grateful that they turned this flag over to us," said Gregg Potts, manager of Port Hudson State Historical Site, which preserves a large area of the battlefield. The flag, called a Confederate First National, features two wide red stripes and one white stripe, a field of blue and a circle of 11 white stars, one for each state in the Confederacy. Potts and Port Hudson Historian Mike Fraering accepted the donation on behalf of the Louisiana Office of State Parks on Oct. 21 in Boston. The flag measures 41/2 feet by 81/2 feet. "The account goes that some African-American soldiers found it in a buried tin box about a year after the siege," Fraering said. The soldiers turned the flag over to their commander, Edward T. Lewis, who was promoted to captain after agreeing to leave the 31st Massachusetts Infantry to take charge of an African-American unit, the 4th Louisiana Native Guards. The unit was redesignated the 76th U.S. Colored Troops after the siege ended on July 9, 1863. Lewis, a shoe and boot dealer from Westfield, Mass., before the war, made an effort to sell the flag to the Confederate Museum in New Orleans in the1880s. His sister, Albion Lewis, donated it to the historical society in 1921. Fraering said the Port Hudson museum's file on Port Hudson's flags contains a copy of Lewis' letter to the New Orleans museum. "He said he had it, but that's all we ever knew," Fraering said. "We had no idea it still existed. It floored me when I got the e-mail asking if we would like to have it. I couldn't write a reply fast enough," Potts said. Fowler said that after he became the society's director in 1998, he began examining some of the organization's holdings. He said he found a collection of Civil War flags, many of which were captured from Confederate forces during the war. Because the society operates a research facility, not a museum, Fowler said he thought the flags should given to museums that would use them to stimulate interest in their history. "If it excites people about history, amen," he said. Society curator Anne Bentley did the research that has led the society to transfer about a dozen of the flags in its collection. Potts and Fraering said the historical society also agreed to provide them with letters, diaries and other records of the Port Hudson siege. "They were very generous in allowing us to examine their collection," Potts said The flag has some black stains, possibly caused by ink or black powder, but the only way to tell for sure is through "destructive testing," an option
that won't be pursued, Fraering said. The banner will join a larger garrison flag, 9 feet by 18 feet, donated to the Port Hudson museum by Dr. Edward Boagni III of Baton Rouge, who purchased it from descendants of Lt. William Trask of the 6th Michigan Infantry in the 1980s. The Trask flag, which has 12 stars in a square, may have been flown on the riverfront, where it could be seen by the Union gunboats pounding Port Hudson, while the smaller banner may have flown over the headquarters of one of the fort's subcommanders, Potts and Fraering said. The Port Hudson defenders decided to surrender after learning on July 7, 1863, of the fall of Vicksburg several days earlier. Negotiations for the surrender began July 8, and the ceremonies took place the next day. The defenders would have had an afternoon and night to bury items such as flags, uniforms and weapons that they did not want to hand over to the Union forces, Potts said. "The Confederates did bury stuff in the cemetery. There are recorded instances of things being buried in holes disguised as graves," he said. The Office of State Parks expects to receive a donation to send the flag to
a conservator to help the museum preserve the fabric while also framing it for permanent display. Potts said. "That is proof that what we're doing is the right thing to do," Fowler said on hearing of the display plans.
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