Exhibits


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Exhibition Copy University of California - Santa Cruz
Board of Councilors Meeting, 7 June 2012

Rare Flags Exhibit

Santa Cruz, CA, June 7, 2012: The Zaricor Flag Collection exhibited 34 flags and artifacts at the University of California Santa Cruz Campus for the Board of Councilors Meeting.

United States 33 Star Storm
Ensign, 1st Flag Captured
in Civil War

Date: January, 1861

Media: Banner, cotton canvas and paint; Flag, wool bunting, machine stitched,
cotton hand sewn, double appliqué stars with linen canvas heading.

Comment: This iconic ghost of an American flag is the earliest documented
flag captured during captured the American Civil War. The flag was captured
by Florida secessionists at Pensacola, on January 12, 1861, a full three months
before the firing on Fort Sumter, thus making it the first United States flag
captured in that Great Conflict.
The flag was later retaken by United States Navy Lt. Edward E. Brennand
from the storeship USS Supply, who while ashore under a flag of truce, seized the
flag back from the secessionists, who were desecrating the flag by trailing it in the
dust.
Lt. Brennand returned to his home in Pittsburgh and left the flag in the
care of his sister, Mrs. John Erwin, and her grandniece, Mrs. John Prichard. Lt.
Brennand did not survive the war, but his relations used the flag in November
1864 to celebrate the reelection of President Abraham Lincoln by attaching it
to a commemorative banner and displaying it across Penn Avenue in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. The flag and banner have not been separated since that time.
A careful look at the flag reveals several of the stars are joined only by the
slenderest of threads, symbolically much like the Union in the Civil War.

Provenance: Acquired at auction in 2007 by the Zaricor Flag Collection
(ZFC2510) from the Soldiers & Sailors National Military Museum & Memorial,
Pittsburgh, PA, via James D. Julia Auctions, Fairfield, ME. www.FlagCollection.com

Title information is available upon specific request. Additional information available upon request to researchers, writers and others demonstrating special circumstances. In some situations, information may not be available.