Assasination relics: Clothing, chairs, death-scene stuff, and other macabre items

[L Verge]

(07-14-2018 07:06 AM)Rsmyth Wrote:  Harry Ford testified after the assassination on May 31st 1865 that he placed the Treasury Guard blue regimental flag in the center of the two boxes. That is the flag now known as "the spur torn flag" on exhibit at Ford' Theater. Your article (above) references the flag Withers had in his possession as the one torn by Booth's spur. So Withers was clearly mistaken.

The Treasury Guard Presentation flag is as you state on display at the Ct Historical Society in Hartford.

The third third flag from the Treasury Dept. was the national flag. That flag was placed in a frame and covered with some type of varnish to preserve it. It was displayed in the Treasury Dept. until 1939 when it was transferred to the National Park Service. The relic had deteriorated greatly and except for a few scraps it was disposed off. About 1980 Lincoln assassination expert and author, Edward Steers Jr. was researching the "Lincoln Vault", when he came across "fragments of a silk flag with the notation that it was on the balustrade at Ford's and the flag that tripped up Booth". That notation is in all likelihood incorrect as eyewitness accounts state Booth caught his spur in the flag hanging vertically in the center of the box, not hung on the balustrade.

An American flag was obtained from local booksellers Blanchard and Mohan (or Mohren), by Ford's property manager, James L. Maddox. After the assassination it was returned to the book firm. That flag was given to W.B. Blanchard family friend or cousin James K. Moore then to Willian C. Scheide of Hartford, CT. who gave it to his cousin Virginia Moore Vail, then living in California. The trail goes cold after that.

In 1898 Blanchard stated that four of the flags came from the Treasury Dept. with the fifth coming from his firm.

Of course most everything regarding the flags is conjecture.

What a great, detailed analysis of the "flag, flag, who's got the flag?" saga, Rich. Thank you. I have a difficult time accepting the Pike County version, and when the society there wanted to offer it as a traveling exhibit to raise money, I was a bit irritated. Even if we had been convinced that the flag was "authentic," the fee and the costs for security, display, etc. would have been too much to bear.