This Civil War flag survived enemy capture by being hidden by a local soldier while a prisoner of war at Andersonville, Georgia

You can adopt this national treasure for $15,000.00.

One of the treasures stored at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum is a large handmade national flag presented in the autumn of 1861 to Company B, 103^rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry as they were leaving for the seat of war. Many members of the company had attended Blaney School in Kittaning, Pennsylvania, one a former teacher. Upon learning of the company’s departure, a number of girls from the school hastily assembled a flag and delivered it to Camp Orr where the company trained.

The flag accompanied the regiment for 3 years when, on April 20, 1864 at the battle of Plymouth, N. C., the regiment was surrounded and forced to surrender. One soldier refusing to let the Blaney School flag fall into the hands of the enemy, hid it underneath his clothing wrapped around his body. For the next eight months the soldier concealed the banner while a prisoner at Andersonville, Georgia, the most notorious POW camp in the Civil War. Paroled later that year the soldier and his flag returned to Union lines. In 1912 the flag was donated by the soldier’s family to Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall. 

Now over 150 years old, the fragile Blaney School flag is stored in the museum’s archives, rarely brought out unless for special occasions.

Adopting this extremely important piece of history would put the delicate textile in the hands of a conservator who would stabilize the piece and mount it in a way that it can be displayed and preserved for generations to come.