Original Confederate Flag on E-Bay???

[C.G. Williams]

I saw this and I was just curious if anyone had a comment about it...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=13960&item=2239276714&rd=1

[markj]

Re: Original Confederate Flag on E-Bay???

Hi,

This flag appears to be B-O-G-U-S. To be fair, there have been bonafide Confederate colors offered on eBay but 99.9% of them are "dogs." Compare this flag with a documented color of the 31st Tennessee at Gary Hendershott Museum Consultants:

http://www.garyhendershott.com/productdetail.cfm?Key=984

Also look at the colors currently in the collection of the Tennessee State Museum:

http://www.tnmuseum.org/exhibitions/specialcollections/flags.html

http://www.state.tn.us/sos/statelib/pubsvs/flags.htm

Regards,

Mark Jaeger

[BishopLynch]

Re: Original Confederate Flag on E-Bay???

Would you sell an original Confederate flag for $1000? I doubt it, no one in their right mind would let an original go for that little. Funny how all these original confederate items keep popping up for so little.

[billwatson]

Re: Original Confederate Flag on E-Bay???

Probably a fake for the simple reason that if it were bonafide, it wouldn't be for sale on Ebay, it would command such a high price that Ebay would be a silly place to put it.

However, this flag does duplicate a known issue:

http://www.confederateflags.org/army/FOTCanv.htm#cotton

Spring 1862, cotton issue, "badly dyed". They got that right....

This was an ANV flag, issued in 1862 to flags then serving in the ANV. The Second Tennessee was in that part of the world, at least in 1861. I have not tracked them beyond this, but someone can probably add to it. So someone has added to the plausibility by selecting a regiment that seems like it could have been issued a flag like this.

Maj. Gen. T. H. HOLMES, commanding.
Brigadier-General French's brigade.
Second Arkansas Battalion Infantry.
Thirty-fifth Georgia Infantry.
Twenty-second North Carolina Infantry.
Second Tennessee Infantry.
Forty-seventh Virginia Infantry.
Braxton's artillery (Virginia).
Maryland Flying Artillery.
Caroline Light Dragoons (Virginia).
Stafford Rangers, cavalry, (Virginia).


Confederate flags are tricky. There are so many variations, and so many "make-do-with-what-cloth-we've-got" situations, that the variables are endless. It makes it tough to say something as unattractive as this Ebay flag is definitely a fake -- a lot of the originals were quite unattractive.

[billwatson]

Re: Original Confederate Flag on E-Bay???

Having difficulty with how my computer presents this website today, wanted to file the previous post before it evaporated.

My point was that the cotton ANV issue would be a great flag to try to fake, because it's such a queer and ugly duck.

Bill Watson

[Fod]

Re: Original Confederate Flag on E-Bay???

Apart from the error in design, the holes and the edge fraying I think give a clue that it went through the same battle as a pair of jeans from Abercrombie.

[billwatson]

Re: Original Confederate Flag on E-Bay???

Apart from the error in design, the holes and the edge fraying I think give a clue that it went through the same battle as a pair of jeans from Abercrombie.

yeah, you'd think they'd have noticed the design called for 12 stars, not 13.