Custer Flags

[rch]

Through the website for the The New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center you can view flags of most of the New York regiments that served under Custer and those in which some of his men served.

They are the:
14th NY Heavy Art - 6/29 correction - Vickory not Varden served in this regiment. Varden of Co I served inthe 11th Maine Inf.
1st NY Dragoons (also 19th NY Cav) - Maj Gibbs
1st NY Mounted Rifles (also 7th NY Cav) - Capt Hale & Caddle, Co I
2nd NY Cav - 1st Brig, Custer's Division
5th NY Cav - 1st Brig, Custer's Division - Crandell, Co C
8th NY Cav - 2nd Brig, Custer's Division
13th NY Cav - Lt Brewster
14th NY Cav - Lt Nowlan
15th NY Cav - 2nd Brig, Custer's Division
16th NY Cav - Jennys, Co K
22nd NY Cav - 2nd Brig, Custer's Div
24th NY Cav - Lt Cooke
25th NY Cav - the Michigan Brigade
10th NY Inf - O'Neill, Co G
37th NY Inf - Murray, Co B
79th NY Inf - Lt DeRudio

It's at www.dmna.state.ny.us/historic/mil-hist.htm

From there go to "Flags" then to "Conserved Flags."

rch

3 June - In June, 1865, 6 companies of the 14th NY were transferred into the 18th NY. Nowlan was tranferred to the 18th on 12 Jun 65. The 18th served in Texas at the time Custer was Chief of Cavalry there. The flank markers of the 18th are can also be viewed.

rch

[George Armstrong Custer]

Thanks for that, rch, that's a really interesting resource. If you're interested (and haven't already noticed it), I've posted a pic of Custer's personal guidon here:

lbha.proboards12.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1178224997

ciao,
GAC

[rch]

GAC,

Thanks for posting the photo of the flag sold in the 1990's.

The flag sold in the 90's is not the same one that was recently offered. If you compare where the sabres cross and the design of the sabers' hilts you can see the difference.

I think the one sold in the 90's was on display at the Museum of the Monroe Historical Society in the 80's. If so, it must only have been on loan to the Society. Was there any information about who was selling it?

rch

[George Armstrong Custer]

rch - thanks for drawing attention to that. My own feeling is that the flag which you mention as having been displayed by the Monroe Historical Society in the 80's is more likely to have been the one sold earlier this month, as the provenance of that one is through the late Larry Frost, Monroe's most prominent Custerophile and member of the Historical Society. Most of Frost's collection of Custer relics appear to have been obtained through the family of Charles A. Custer, and the bulk of the Frost collection was sold off at the Butterfield auction of April '95 - including the military foot locker shown below:



So it's interesting to learn that, after selling most of the other items from Larry's collection in '95, Frost's family must have held on to the flag until it was sold this month. Given what you've said about the difference between the two flags, I took another look at the Butterfield catalogue, and it's interesting to note that the provenance of the flag sold at their '95 auction does not include Larry Frost's name, but gives the previous owners as New York art dealer Alexander Acevedo (the seller) and Charles A. Custer. Acevedo seems to have aquired a number of choice Custer relics from Charles A. Custer's estate apart from the flag, including amongst other things Custer's 1864 enlisted man's sabre by Christopher Roby, and the portrait vases of George and Libby Custer painted at New Orleans in July 1865, which appear on p. 72 of Frost's The Custer Album. For those interested, here's how they appear in color:



I believe that most of the Custer relics in the Frost collection were gifts to the avid amateur historian over the years by the Custer family, whilst the Acevedo collection (of rather choicer items) will have been purchased from the family of Charles A. Custer at high cost.

To get back to the flags, if the one sold earlier this month is the late war one of January 1865 mentioned in Libbie's correspondence, the one sold in '95 which I posted the pic of must have been the 'old one' she also refers to which she had made for Custer earlier, and which (as can be seen from the pic) was suffering a fair degree of field wear and tear:



This would tie in with the date given for this flag in the Butterfield catalogue description as being circa 1863. The Butterfield description goes on to say:

6th Michigan Cavalry swallowtail guidon of composite construction depicting white crossed sabers against a blue [and red] background. Handmade by Elizabeth B. Custer.

So, it's clear that the flags from the '95 and '07 auctions are the two made by Libby in, respectively, c.1863 and 1865. Thanks for pointing out that they were not the same flag!

ciao,
GAC