Auction details |
65. ELLSWORTH CONFEDERATE FLAG AND SHIRT RELICS This great historic relic requires some background: Col. Ephraim Elmer Ellsworth (b. 1837) studied law in Abraham Lincoln's office and helped Lincoln with his campaign for president, ultimately traveling with him to Washington. The two became fast friends, Lincoln calling Ellsworth "the greatest little man I ever met." When the Civil War erupted, Ellsworth went to New York City and raised a regiment of volunteers from the city's firefighters. As colonel of the New York Fire Zouaves, Ellsworth was anxious to be the first to invade the South. On May 24, 1861, the day after Virginia seceded, Ellsworth led his men uncontested down the streets of Alexandria when he He noticed a Confederate flag atop the Marshall House Inn. Ellsworth and four others quickly ascended the stairs; Ellsworth cut down the flag and was descending the stairs with the flag wrapped about his torso when the proprietor, James W. Jackson, killed him with a shotgun blast to the chest. Before Jackson could fire the second shot, he was shot in the face and repeatedly bayonetted by Cpl. Francis Brownell. Lincoln, grief-stricken, had an honor guard bring his friend's body to the White House, where it lay in state, and the Union's first man to fall in action became the nation's "martyr". We offer here what we believe are simply the finest Civil War relics we have encountered, namely two swatches of the Confederate flag torn from the roof of the Marshall House, one red, one white, each about 2" x 1 1/2", along with a 3/4" x 3/4" swatch of finely-woven crimson red fabric identified as a piece of Ellsworth's shirt. The relics are accompanied by two paper tags with undoubtedly period handwriting which read in full: "Col. Ellsworth, his Trophy and piece of his Shirt" and "Pieces of the Secession Flag taken by him, and a piece of the robe shirt on him at the time of his death". Both relics and tags are encased in a period daguerrotype case painted gold on the outside. Obtained by our consignor from noted Civil War dealers The Horse Soldier, who obtained the relics from the collection of Norm Flayderman, world-reknowed Civil War collectibles author and collector. We know of only one other swatch of "Ellsworth's flag", and it currently resides at the Smithsonian Institute. $5,000-7,000
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