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5th NEW YORK NATIONAL GUARD COMPANY E FLANK MARKER

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This very attractive blue silk marker with gold fringe and embroidered unit designation comes with a 1995 letter from flag authority Howard Madaus, a 2004 treatment report by Textile Preservation Associates, the well-known and highly respected textile conservators, and copies of brief correspondence between a dealer and the Texas Civil War Museum who acquired it. The flag measures 21” tall, including the 1-3/4” or 1 7/8” gold silk corded fringe running along the edges and fly end. The fringe stops short of the leading edge on the top and bottom, with the leading edge bound with a dark blue tape, and originally wrapped around a pole to form a sleeve and secured to it with seven tacks, whose small holes show in a vertical line near the leading edge. With that edge folded back, the flag would measure about 23” including the fringe on the fly, and with that end open, as it is framed, about 26” overall.

The flag has been conserved and is framed to show obverse side (leading edge to the left,) which is embroidered in gold silk thread “Comp:” over “E” with embroidery forming overlapping leaves to create the letters in script 2-1/2” to 5” tall. The reverse is embroidered likewise in gold silk, but thin, plainer (non-foliate) script letters “5^th” over “Regt” with the last letter suprascript and underlined twice as is the “th” following the “5.” The TPA condition report notes the flag is mostly intact with “minor abrasion” to the embroidery and small splits, but little loss to the fabric. Framing it to show the company designation is appropriate given the more decorative foliate lettering.

Madaus points out similarities of the flag to some blue markers carried in the Civil War, which were unofficial and might vary in design by maker, and similarities between the embroidered lettering style of this flag with that used on Tiffany-produced New York City presentation guide flags during the Civil War, though those were generally larger and the overall design differed. He also notes differences between this flag and those officially adopted by the US Army in 1885 and followed in New York’s regulations the same year. His considered opinion was that, “the flag was probably that of Company E, 5^th Regiment New York National Guard and dates from the period of about 1863 through 1870-1876.” Madaus did not record faint signs of applied stars on the flag. TPA notes indications of seven-pointed stars about 3” across having been applied to the four corners of the flag on each side, though they do not guess about their construction, only noting that some light blue fabric was inserted between the dark blue silk panels at those places to reinforce them. But, this may not have affected Madaus’s dating or attribution of the flag given the lettering style and its other aspects.

Madaus’s 1995 letter indicates the flag originally came through well-known and respected dealer Jim Frasca of Ohio, but includes no other details on provenance. A 2003 letter from another dealer offering the flag to the Texas Civil War Museum refers to the flag as coming from “the estate of Col. Winslow,” a reference to Col. Cleveland Winslow, former commander of the 5^th NY Volunteers, the Duryea Zouaves, and of the 5^th NY Veteran Volunteers, a reconstituted version of the regiment organized after the original unit mustered out upon the expiration of its two years of service in May 1863, and the letter includes a summary of that latter unit’s service. That provenance, however, is unsupported in the other documentation with the flag and both the 5^th NY Vols and 5^th NY Vet Vols are different organizations from the 5^th New York National Guard (“New York State Militia” prior to 1862,) to which Madaus attributes the flag, and to which Winslow, who died in 1864, as far as we can determine had no connection. (We also note that extant flags from those two volunteer units, including markers from the 5^th NY Vet Vols, are different, though one might argue that a privately acquired company flag might differ.)

Also known as the Jefferson Guard, the 5^th Regiment NY National Guard, well fits Madaus’s time frame for the flag, being organized in 1834 and not dissolved until 1882. It was also based in New York City, making Madaus’s connection of the flag with Tiffany possible. They did two tours of active duty during the war, the second of which, in 1863, falls within Madaus’s lower date for the flag. Their first service had been for three months in 1861, late April to early August, in the taking of Arlington Heights and duty at various points in Maryland as part of Patterson’s army. A second call-up in late May 1862 was cancelled, but the regiment was again called up and ordered to Harrisburg on June 18, 1863, for thirty days service in the Gettysburg Campaign, falling within Madaus’s lower date for the flag, and doing duty at Harrisburg, Marysville, Carlisle, and Chambersburg, PA, in the Department of Susquehanna, and mustering out back in NY City on July 22.  [sr][ph:L]

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