The ravages of the Civil War were nothing compared with the toll
time is taking on the bullet-riddled grand old flag in the Onondaga County Courthouse.
Present at some of that war's fiercest and most signoficant battles,
the 34-star federal flag carried by a Union Army regiment from Onondaga County is so
fragile today that simply touching it could destroy it.
The banner, carried by the Syracuse-based 149th Regiment of New York
State Volunteers, is one of nine Civil War-era flags stored in an oak case at the county
clerk's office.
"It is a project that is critically needed. These flags
historically are very significant," said Denis Connors, executive director of the
Onondaga Historical Association.
The flag - as well as five others in the collection - is in such
poor shape that 1 1986 study by a textile conservation group warned against moving it
until the county is ready to have it restored or preserved.
A local group of Civil War enthusiasts hopes to do just that.
"It's an awfully important project. This flag represents
so much," said Darothy DeAngelo, vice president of the Civil War Rountable.
The roundtable hopes to launch a drive to raise money soon to help
pay the cost of restoring the 149th's flag and possibly to others in the clerk's office.
The silk, yellow-fringed Stars and Stripes rallied the regiment's
volunteer soldiers at the battles of Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Wauhatchie, Lookout
Mountain, Missionary Ridge and Ringgold.
At Gettysburg, the regiment was posted on Cilp's Hill on July 3,
1863, when 88 bullets from Confederate gunfile ripped through the flag and shattered its
staff. Collor-Sgt. William C. Lilly leapt over the regiment's fortification, grabbed
the flag and its severed staff, and scrambled to the safety of his comrades.
With gunfire all arounf him, Lilly, using two splints from a wooden
cracker box and leather straps from a knapsack, lashed the two severed pieces together.
Lilly's 135-year-old lash is still holding the staff together.
The episode was featured in an oil painting by 19th-century artist
Edwin Forbes. The scene, "An Incident at Gettysburg," was cast in bronze
and is featured on the west face of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Clinton Square in
downtown Syracuse. Another bronze tablet was placed on Cilp's Hill, where the
regiment fought.
Properly restoring and preserving the flag will be expensive, and
could cost tens of thounsands of dollars, Conners said.
"It's kind of a Catch-22," Conners said. "In
order to get an estimate of what it is going to cost to restore, the flags have to be
taken to a conservation lab where they would be unrolled to see what the reality is.
Once they do that, you have to be committed to the project because you can't roll
them back up again and put them back. At that point, they would have to be
treated."
The state is planning to begin restoring the old flags in its State
Capital Collection.
"When we explored whether we could piggyback on their funding
stream, they said the flags would have to come down to Albany," Connors said.
"We don't want to do that," said County Clerk Ann
Ciarpelli, current caretaker of the flags. "They're our flags. Some of
them have a real history and some have bloodstains and dirt from the battles."
The county clerk's office has been custodian of the local flags
since 1881.
The flag case is a popular stop when groups tour the courthouse,
Ciarpelli said.
"When you point them out, people are very impressed by them,
but most of the time, people don't even know they're there," she said.
Ciarpelli said she welcomes any help in restoring the flags, but
before any project is undertaken, it should be approved by a group including local
officials, historians and veterans groups.
"These flags belong to Onondaga County," she said.
DeAngelo said she and her colleagues are ready for the fundraising
challenge.
"I know it's going to be overwhelming. I have a feeling
it's going to be looking at big bucks," DeAngelo said. "If we really,
really, investigate it, I think we would find there are great monies available."
DeAngelo also hopes to enlist the support of veterens groups and
others, including descendants of the 149th Regiment veterans.
"It's an awfully important project," DeAngelo said.
"The fact that the mending of the staff of this flag is depicted not only in
Syracuse, but down at the (Gettysburg) battle field, is monumental."
Civil War Rountable member Jim Keib plans to solicit the support of
the area state and federal officials.
"I'll go to (Rep.) Jim Walsh, (Assemblyman) Mike Bragman,
(state Sen.) John DeFrancisco. Saving this flag is so important," siad Keib, a
Salina town councilor.
Keib said he is especially taken with the symbolism of the
"Incident at Gettysburg."
I think it's very symbolic - the two pieces of the broken staff
being lashed together. It kind of symbolizes what the Civil War was all about,"
Keib said.
Connors agrees.
"The flag was very important to these men," Conners said.
"It represented everything - what they were fighting for, what they had gone
through and those that died. To lose your flag was the worst thing that could
happen. It was an honor to carry your regiment's flag, and they would volunteer
knowing that the survival rate of flag bearers was low. They would willingly do it.
They would give their lives protecting their flag. That's something you
probably wouldn't see much of today."
