16 Star U.S. Navy Boat Flag - Navy Yard Charleston, 1850's.
This is a U.S. Navy Boat Ensign (Boat Flag) from the Naval Yard in Boston, Massachusetts, 1854-63. According to the Flag House records, the ensign once belonged to an elderly man in Abbesville, Alabama. After his death the flag was found in an old sideboard. The elderly man told the individual who received the flag from him that his grandfather, a Southern sympathizer, owned many old pre-Revolutionary articles and in his work took many mules and horses into Virginia, a trip which may have required need of the flag. The elderly man explained that he was trading mules and horses from Virgina into Union lines.. The story implies these trips were some what frequent and his grandfather felt no danger but the flag was his back up increasing his chances to get thru the lines do his business and return home to Virginia. He found it convenient to take this flag with him on trips when he needed to cross into the Union lines and the confederates gave him no trouble when they heard his story..

The field is composed of thirteen alternating, horizontal, red and white wool/bunting stripes, stitched together by hand. The top and bottoms stripes are red. Inset into the upper hoist corner and extending through seven stripes is a dark blue wool/bunting union canton 23.5" x 20.5". 16 white cotton, 5-pointed stars, each 3" across, are hand sewn on the obverse and reverse sides in four horizontal rows of four stars each. The flag is finished with a 2" wide white linen canvas heading bearing a hand sewn button hole eyelet at each end. Marked in ink upon the heading are the inscriptions: "6 Ft. BOAT ENSIGN" and "N Y C" (the latter indicating manufacture at the United States Naval Yard at Charlestown (Boston Harbor).

Exhibition History:

Second Presidio Exhibit, 2003 GALLERY III
(ZFC0029)
16-Star United States Navy Boat Flag

Provenance:
• Navy Yard Charleston, Boston, Mass., 1850s.
• Used by unnamed Southern sympathizer in Abbesville, Alabama, 1861- 1865.
• By descent to Colonel & Mrs. Jesse J. Hinson, Baltimore, MD, until 1966.
• Gifted to The Star Spangled Banner Flag House & Museum, until 1996.
• Acquired by the Zaricor Flag Collection from the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House Collection of Baltimore, MD. in 1996.


Publication History:

Cooper, Grace Rogers, Thirteen Star Flags: Keys to Identification. Washington D.C., 1973, pp. 33-34.

Madaus, Howard M., Dr, Whitney Smith, The American Flag: Two Centuries of Concord and Conflict. Santa Cruz: VZ Publications, 2006, p. 67.



Provenance:
Acquired by the Zaricor Flag Collection (ZFC0029) in 1996 from the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House Collection of Baltimore, MD.

ZFC Significant Flag
Item is Framed

Sources: