Oh, hey there, neighbor! I see you’ve got that Confederate battle flag proudly flapping off your wood deck in the backyard—right here in southern Minnesota. Maybe you got southern minnesota confused with southern US? Bold choice, either way, I guess. Before we get into why that’s like repping the Yankees at a Boston dive bar, let me tell you about another Confederate battle flag that made its way up to our fine northern state. Unlike yours, this one didn’t arrive via Amazon Prime and a questionable sense of regional pride; no, this flag got here the old-fashioned way: it was stolen fair and square on a bloody battlefield by some of Minnesota’s most badass soldiers.
You see, while your flag hangs there as a confusing homage to a war Minnesotans fought for the other side in, there’s a flag stashed away in St Paul that was captured by the 1st Minnesota Infantry at Gettysburg. They didn’t politely ask for it. They didn’t “borrow” it. They tore it right out of the hands of those fucking confederate traitors to the United States.
After the capture, the flag made its way to the Minnesota State Capitol, where it was shown off like a hunting trophy for a while. It eventually ended up in the Minnesota Historical Society’s collection, where it’s been chilling since at least 1896. And no, it’s not going back. Ever. When Virginia groups started asking for it back around 1960, Minnesota’s answer was basically, “No.” Even Governor Jesse Ventura once quipped, “Why, I mean, we won!” That’s diplomacy, Minnesota-style.
The flag was captured by Private Marshall Sherman, who stashed it in Minnesota as his personal war loot until the U.S. War Department took inventory in 1867. A 1905 congressional resolution required returning Civil War flags to their original states, but Minnesota didn’t care. Virginia kept asking politely in 1961, 1998, 2000, and 2003, but the answer was a firm “nope.” Even when the governor of Virginia tried to borrow it in 2013, the reply was, “Hard pass.”
Today, the flag sits in a drawer at the Minnesota Historical Society, location undisclosed. It’s got a few holes and a torn eyelet (thanks, battle damage), but it’s mostly intact, missing only a tiny bit of fabric.
Pretty badass history for Minnesota war veterans. So what’s the story behind your fucking flag?
Happy Veteran’s Day on November 11th. To all American veterans, even the ones who still aren’t over the civil war.
