Save the Flags!

We need your help!

About 75 flags from Kansas' involvement in the Civil War are in the collections of the Kansas Historical Society. Most are battle flags of various Kansas regiments, but there also are Confederate and Border Ruffian flags and political banners.

Tattered and torn, these flags may be lost forever if funds for their preservation are not raised.

Some of the flags show damage from their service in battle, but all have suffered the effects of time and environment. Many have been furled for decades.

Now brittle with age, the flags need treatment by specialists before they can be unfurled and made available for research and public viewing.

Flags needing conservation include:

• A Confederate flag reputedly captured at Lookout Mountain on Nov. 24, 1863 by the Eighth Kansas Infantry.
• Banner presented to Abraham Lincoln before one of the Lincoln-Douglas debates by students of Lombard College in Illinois. It later was used in the 1860 presidential election in Kansas by Lincoln supporters.

ADOPT A FLAG

Families or organizations can "Adopt a Flag" by underwriting its preservation either fully or in part. Contributions in any amount are welcome. All donations are tax exempt and are placed in an unrestricted fund for flag preservation.

To contribute to Save the Flags! contact us at Webmaster@kshs.org. Or call the Kansas Historical Society at 785-272-8681, ext. 427.

Save the Flags!

The Society's collections include the following preserved flags:

• Blunt's flag
• Eighth Kansas Infantry flag
• First Kansas Battery flag--featured in June 18, 2008, podcast
• First Kansas Cavalry flag--featured in June 18, 2008, podcast
• First Kansas Colored Infantry flag
• Quantrill's flag
• Second Kansas Colored Infantry flag
• Springfield flag