Regimental flags were a source of pride for units fighting in the various battles of the Civil War, explained Troy Banzhaf, park interpreter at Pea Ridge National Military Park. The units carried the flags into battle, where the flags also provided points of reference, locations of their units, for soldiers in the heat of the conflict.

A piece of that pride will be returned March 20. In a small ceremony at Elkhorn Tavern at the national park, Lisa Speer, director of the Arkansas History Commission, will hand over the flag of the Sixth Regiment of the Missouri Union Cavalry to Linda Endersby of the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis. Color guards from Union and Confederate reenactment units will participate, Speer said, and representatives will speak about the battle and the flag.

"We are the keeper of the Missouri battle flags," Endersby explained. "We have 125 Civil War battle flags."

For decades, the St. Louis museum has worked to "repatriate" flags to the states that honor them with pride, Endersby said. In 2010, the museum returned two regimental flags to the Old Statehouse Museum in Little Rock.

"They're a part of each state's history, and it only seems appropriate," Endersby said.

Additionally, funds for conservation more likely will be spent on items representing the home state, Endersby said. The Missouri flag eventually will be framed and conserved for display, she said.

"For the ancestors of those who fought and died in the war, it is important to preserve the flags in the state they were from," Speer said.

"Flags were an important part of the soldiers' lives," reads information from the national park's website. "Officially, they were used to align and rally troops and to identify units amid the smoke and confusion of battle. But to the men, it was more than a mere field marker. To them, it was something to be cherished, something to die for. It symbolized what they were fighting for and was a record of their service.

"There was no greater glory than to capture the enemy's flag; there was no greater disgrace than to lose one's own."

Records indicate the Sixth Missouri Cavalry was organized in Southwest Missouri as a consolidation of smaller units formed earlier in the war, Banzhaf said.

The cavalry did not play a big role at the Battle of Pea Ridge because the land just wasn't conducive, Banzhaf continued. He surmised that the Sixth served here as a headquarters unit for Union commander Brig. Gen. Samuel Curtis, commander of the Army of the Southwest.

"They would have seen their first action Feb. 17 (1862) at Little Sugar Creek -- what we call Dunigan's Farm -- before the battle," Banzhaf said, and perhaps they also fought on the Leetown battlefield (March 7, 1862).

The unit also saw action at Prairie Grove (Dec. 7, 1862), the occupation of Helena and with Curtis' invasion of the White River Valley at Whitney's Lane near Searcy, according to the Arkansas History Commission. From January to August 1863, the unit served in Mississippi at the siege of Vicksburg and the occupation of Jackson. From 1863 to 1865, the cavalry was involved in the Red River campaign in Louisiana. The unit mustered out Sept. 12, 1865.

The group's regimental flag sports a Union coat of arms -- showing an eagle and shield -- hand-painted on blue silk, with gold tassel fringe on three sides. At some point, somebody glued to the silk currency of the time and photographs of Col. Thomas Clark Wright, commander of the unit, in uniform, Speer noted.

Although nothing proves the flag was carried into battle, the piece does date back to the 1860s, Speer said. And its march back to Missouri seems to bring it full circle.

Wright passed on the flag to his granddaughter, Ada Wright Van Sickle of Hot Springs, Speer said. Van Sickle donated the flag to the Garland County Historical Society in 1961. Next, the flag was purchased at an estate auction on Central Avenue in Hot Springs, and then the unknown donor gave it to the history commission. The William J. Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock displayed the flag during 2011.

NAN Life on 03/12/2014