June 14, 2022
Flint’s Civil War Heroes: The Story of the 10th Michigan Infantry
Flag Day Special — The Untold Story of Flint’s Civil War Soldiers and the battle flags that led them through America’s defining conflict.
In the American Civil War, 90,000 Michigan soldiers marched into battle. Among them were the men of the 10th Michigan Infantry Regiment, organized in Flint, Michigan and mustered into federal service in February 1862. Their service carried them across the war’s most brutal frontlines — Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, and North Carolina — ultimately marching with Sherman to the Sea and helping secure Union victory with the fall of Atlanta.
This episode features David Norris, whose great-grandfather Talmon C. Owen fought with the 10th Michigan Infantry. Their regiment suffered 327 casualties, including officers and enlisted men lost to battle and disease. These were Flint’s sons — mill workers, farmers, tradesmen — who shaped the future of the nation.
🎖️ The Battle Flags That Led Them
Before deploying, the Flint soldiers received handmade silken battle flags, gifted by the women of Flint. These flags were not symbolic; they were tactical lifelines on chaotic Civil War battlefields, guiding regiments in smoke, blood, and confusion.
After the war, surviving flags were returned to the State of Michigan and entrusted to the governor. Many never made it home.
🏛️ Save The Flags — Michigan’s Preservation Project
Michigan’s Save The Flags initiative preserves 240 historic battle flags from:
- The Civil War
- The Spanish-American War
- World War I
Nearly 150 flags have been adopted for conservation by families, schools, civic groups, and historians. Adoption helps fund research, preservation, and public display of these irreplaceable artifacts.
Learn more or find a flag to adopt through this statewide initiative.
🕊️ Flint’s Legacy
The story of the 10th Michigan Infantry is more than military history — it’s a Flint story. It is a story of working-class courage, community pride, and the sacrifices that shaped America long before the challenges of the 20th and 21st centuries.
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Transcript
WEBVTT
00:01:25.250 --> 00:01:27.810
Michigan we have to fly.
00:01:37.810 --> 00:02:01.569
That was singer, folk singer Neil Woodward, who sings Peachtree Creek, a song written by David Norris of Flint, in honor of his great-grandfather, Talman Owens, who fought in the Flint's 10th Infantry Regiment in the Civil War, in the battle at Peachtree Creek.
00:02:01.569 --> 00:02:14.370
Peachtree Creek, of course, was the significant battle, critical one, that resulted in the fall of Atlanta during the Civil War, ultimately led to the end of the Civil War.
00:02:14.370 --> 00:02:32.449
Our episode today is a fantastic review of the city of Flint and the area's involvement in the Civil War and the effort by the state of Michigan and others to save the history of our flags.
00:02:32.449 --> 00:02:49.810
There are battle flags, 240 battle flags, which were taken into the Civil War by those brave soldiers in Michigan, some 90,000 of them, who fought the Confederacy and won the war.
00:02:49.810 --> 00:03:00.370
At the end of the war, they came back to Michigan and presented their battle flags to the governor who was from Flint, Henry Crapo.
00:03:00.370 --> 00:03:11.650
This is the story of Save the Flags and Flint's 10th Infantry Regiment in honor of Talman Owens of Flint, Michigan.
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I hope you enjoy.
00:03:13.490 --> 00:03:16.770
Okay, good morning.
00:03:16.770 --> 00:03:17.969
This is Arthur Bush.
00:03:17.969 --> 00:03:19.490
You're listening to Radio Free Flint.
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I'm your host.
00:03:20.210 --> 00:03:28.530
We have a great program today about a project which has been ongoing for uh over a hundred years, I think.
00:03:28.530 --> 00:03:31.250
And uh it's called Save the Flags.
00:03:31.250 --> 00:03:38.770
So with us today we have Matt Van Aukker, who is the uh I better get your title correct, Matt.
00:03:38.930 --> 00:03:39.889
Help me out.
00:03:39.889 --> 00:03:50.530
Um I direct the tourist tour education and information service at the state capitol, and then serve as the curator of uh the Save the Flags project.
00:03:50.930 --> 00:04:07.409
Okay, and then I also have uh Flint's own David Norris, who's a history buff, and who got uh who first got us interested in this subject uh and his interest in uh this Save the Flags project, especially as it relates to Flint.
00:04:07.409 --> 00:04:15.250
So today we're gonna talk about what is Save the Flags, why it's important to Michigan, and why it's important to preserve our history.
00:04:15.250 --> 00:04:33.970
And then uh we're gonna talk about the 10th Regiment flag, which was a battle flag that was uh of those who fought from Flint, Michigan in the Civil War, uh with Sherman's army all the way to the sea, meaning all the way to Atlanta.
00:04:33.970 --> 00:04:51.490
And then uh we'll come back and chat a little bit about what what this flag's role was within the uh the battles themselves and why it is such a significant uh symbolic um uh so symbolically significant to our nation.
00:04:51.490 --> 00:05:02.610
All right, Matt, tell us uh tell us what uh what is the project that you you're now involved with, uh which is run by the government, I understand.
00:05:03.250 --> 00:05:04.529
Sure, yeah, I'd be happy to.
00:05:04.529 --> 00:05:08.290
I wanted to thank you for the invitation to join you on your podcast.
00:05:08.290 --> 00:05:14.930
Um any uh information we can get out there amongst the citizens of the state about our project is a good thing.
00:05:14.930 --> 00:05:23.889
Um, so our project actually started about 30 years ago in 1990 with the restoration of the state capitol.
00:05:23.889 --> 00:05:45.889
Um, one of the reasons the Capitol was constructed the way it was in 1879 was to serve, obviously, as the seat of state government, but uh I think even more importantly to some of the people back then was to serve really as a memorial to the sacrifices um that the state of Michigan made during the Civil War.
00:05:45.889 --> 00:05:48.689
And what they referred to back then as just the war.
00:05:48.689 --> 00:05:53.170
There was no question about which war they were referring to when they said the war.
00:05:53.170 --> 00:06:05.649
It was also meant to serve as a fitting and um fireproof place to store and display the original battle flags that our soldiers had carried so proudly with them in the war.
00:06:05.649 --> 00:06:14.209
Um, you know, the 1860 census of Michigan listed her population at approximately 750,000 citizens.
00:06:14.209 --> 00:06:25.730
Five years later, by the spring of 1865, Michigan had sent over 90,000 of her father's sons and brothers to the battlefields of that terrible war.
00:06:25.730 --> 00:06:36.850
That constituted, to put this in perspective, um, something people can grasp a little more readily, that constituted about 50% of our eligible male population.
00:06:36.850 --> 00:06:39.649
Just an incredible contribution.
00:06:39.889 --> 00:06:47.970
Um the battle flag That's about one and one and two out of every eligible uh male actually fought in the war.
00:06:48.290 --> 00:06:48.769
Exactly.
00:06:48.769 --> 00:06:52.529
You could imagine that by standards of modern warfare.
00:06:52.529 --> 00:07:01.970
I don't think our citizens would tolerate such a contribution if one and half of our eligible citizens were off fighting in the war.
00:07:01.970 --> 00:07:12.850
Um, back then, though, during the war, enlistments were encouraged and the citizens supported the war effort and trying to end slavery and trying to preserve the Union.
00:07:12.850 --> 00:07:24.370
Um so at the end of the war, um these regiments returned to their home states and they had a grand ceremony in Detroit on July 4th, 1866.
00:07:24.370 --> 00:07:33.329
It was estimated that a tenth of this population of the state, about 75,000 people, turned out for this ceremony.
00:07:33.329 --> 00:07:43.170
And at that time, you mentioned Governor Crapo, uh, Flint's own Governor Crapo accepted the battle flags on behalf of the state of Michigan.
00:07:43.170 --> 00:07:53.170
And Governor Crapo made a solemn pledge to those boys that on that very hot day in July out in the campus Martius in Detroit.
00:07:53.170 --> 00:08:05.410
And he said, basically, as long as the old peninsular state has a name and a place in this nation, these flags will be preserved, her proudest possessions in her state archives.
00:08:05.410 --> 00:08:13.410
Um, so the flags, when the Capitol eventually was built here in Lansing in 1879, the flags came into the Capitol.
00:08:13.410 --> 00:08:19.569
Um, they were first kept in a military museum on the first floor in the South Hall of the building.
00:08:19.569 --> 00:08:30.050
And then in the winter of 1908, 1909, they were transferred out to the cases in the rotunda, where I actually remember seeing them as a small boy.
00:08:30.050 --> 00:08:36.210
One of my uh earliest childhood memories was of visiting the Capitol with my family.
00:08:36.210 --> 00:08:43.730
And I remember standing in the rotunda, literally surrounded by those battle-torn and blood-stained banners.
00:08:43.730 --> 00:08:52.129
Um, and I'm sure I didn't realize at that young age the importance of the flags, but it made a lasting impression on me.
00:08:52.129 --> 00:09:00.370
And here I am some 50 years later, having been charged with the awesome responsibility of helping to care for them.
00:09:00.370 --> 00:09:05.169
So the flags were put into the cases um in 1908, 1909.
00:09:05.169 --> 00:09:11.090
Um they stayed there um relatively intact until the 1960s.
00:09:11.090 --> 00:09:22.610
And in that time, a decision was made by the the state of Michigan to, I guess we could say, air quote, quote unquote, do a good thing for the battle flag collection.
00:09:22.610 --> 00:09:32.129
Um, a lot of states were commemorating the centennial of the war, both north and south in Michigan, and trying to do something to commemorate that event.
00:09:32.129 --> 00:09:41.490
And Michigan decided a good thing to do would be to send her battle flag collection out for again air quotes, quote-unquote conservation.
00:09:41.490 --> 00:09:50.289
Uh, that time the flags were actually sewn between dyed layers of net, literally through a sewing machine by the conservator.
00:09:50.289 --> 00:09:59.090
Um, basically, every time that seamstress's needle went up and down, and that flag put a hole into it and perforated it.
00:09:59.090 --> 00:10:04.929
Um, it's very different than the conservation that we conduct now on the flags.
00:10:04.929 --> 00:10:13.250
So then the flags were uh very ceremoniously put back into their cases, and they pretty much stayed there until our building was restored.
00:10:13.250 --> 00:10:16.289
That project was started in 1989.
00:10:16.289 --> 00:10:31.649
Original intent of Save the Flags was to um maybe encapsulate the rotunda cases to protect the flags from any damage that might come to them, you know, from during the restoration and the dust and dirt from that project.
00:10:31.649 --> 00:10:40.210
We started looking at the collection though and realized that if we didn't do something fairly soon, we were in danger of losing them entirely.
00:10:40.210 --> 00:10:48.610
They were literally falling to bits and pieces, uh, fragments of the flags lying on the bottoms of the cases in the rotunda.
00:10:48.610 --> 00:10:54.690
Even worse than that, red, white, and blue powder, which is the last stage in the disintegration of silk.
00:10:54.690 --> 00:10:56.929
And most of the flags were made of silk.
00:10:56.929 --> 00:11:00.450
They were, it was a lightweight but very durable material.
00:11:00.450 --> 00:11:02.690
So Save the Flags started.
00:11:02.690 --> 00:11:09.809
Um, we got uh uh hired a consultant, nationally recognized uh textile consultant to come in.
00:11:09.809 --> 00:11:24.690
Uh it was based on her evaluation that Save the Flags, which was made up of state capitol and museum personnel and reenactors, and historians, and descendants of men who actually fought beneath these banners.
00:11:24.690 --> 00:11:29.570
Uh, we made the group decision to remove the flags from the Capitol.
00:11:29.570 --> 00:11:31.809
Uh, they were sent to the State Museum.
00:11:31.809 --> 00:11:39.409
Uh, we have a wonderful partnership uh with the state historical center and the state museum just down the street from the Capitol.
00:11:39.409 --> 00:11:47.490
Uh, they supplied the space, a state-of-the-art archival space where we can properly care and preserve the collection.
00:11:47.490 --> 00:11:51.330
Um, some of the flags are in still such bad shape, though.
00:11:51.330 --> 00:11:53.570
They need further conservation.
00:11:53.570 --> 00:11:56.850
And what one of our goals is to raise the funds.
00:11:57.730 --> 00:11:58.850
Let me interrupt you for just a second.
00:11:58.850 --> 00:11:59.570
Yeah, please do.
00:11:59.570 --> 00:12:05.169
So, as I understand it now, there are no more battle flags inside our state capitol building.
00:12:05.409 --> 00:12:07.250
Yeah, we have now our replicas.
00:12:07.250 --> 00:12:11.330
We made copies of about half of the Civil War battle flags.
00:12:11.330 --> 00:12:14.049
So there are copies of about 80 of them.
00:12:14.049 --> 00:12:23.330
The entire collection, I should mention, and I'll ramble on and on if you don't stop me, but uh, the entire collection is about 240 flags.
00:12:23.330 --> 00:12:31.809
160 are Civil War, and the remainder are flags carried by Michigan troops in the Spanish-American War and World War I.
00:12:31.809 --> 00:12:39.250
Um, our focus lately has kind of been on the Civil War flags because they're in more dire need of conservation.
00:12:39.250 --> 00:12:45.490
The latter war flags really weren't used in combat, and they're not as old as the Civil War flags.
00:12:45.490 --> 00:12:49.889
So uh, relatively speaking, they're in in pretty decent shape.
00:12:50.450 --> 00:13:11.090
So, Matt, why why is uh why why is symbolically these flags represent uh uh obviously tremendous sacrifice by the people of Michigan, but why why in terms of the battle and all of that, why why why were they important?
00:13:11.330 --> 00:13:13.809
Yeah, I'm really really glad you asked about that.
00:13:13.809 --> 00:13:24.370
You know, so the flags were a direct link to the communities from which these men had formed, and Civil War regiments and companies formed in communities.
00:13:24.370 --> 00:13:33.409
I mean, you had entire companies, uh, which was about a hundred men of the thousand-man regiment that would form in small towns and communities.
00:13:33.409 --> 00:13:35.009
These men knew each other.
00:13:35.009 --> 00:13:42.929
Uh, the men of the regiment knew each other, and their their battle flags were a direct link to those communities from where they had come.
00:13:42.929 --> 00:13:50.370
Uh, many of these flags were very ceremoniously presented to the men of the regiment as they left for the field of war.
00:13:50.370 --> 00:14:08.690
And um, promises were made by the men to those ladies of the communities, the 10th Michigan Infantry Regiment, their original presentation flag was literally given to them by the ladies of Flint, and it said so on the presentation plaque that was attached to the staff.
00:14:08.690 --> 00:14:11.330
So these boys they made solemn pledges.
00:14:11.330 --> 00:14:18.850
They said this flag will become the Paul, the funeral garment of the regiment before we surrender it to the enemy.
00:14:18.850 --> 00:14:27.009
Every time the men looked to that flag, they recognized that it was a direct link from where they had come and what they were fighting so hard for.
00:14:27.009 --> 00:14:31.409
Now, logistically, they're terribly important on the battlefield.
00:14:31.409 --> 00:14:34.210
We're talking 160 years ago.
00:14:34.210 --> 00:14:40.929
Obviously, people couldn't pull out their phone and text to each other where they were, where they needed to be on the battlefield.
00:14:40.929 --> 00:14:55.330
The only way a colonel could communicate with a thousand-man regiment at full strength, which they very rarely were, um, was by directing his orders to the men who were in the color guard who were there to protect the flag.
00:14:55.330 --> 00:15:03.730
And within the color guard, the color bearers, the non-commissioned officers, the corporal and sergeants who were assigned to carry the flags.
00:15:03.730 --> 00:15:08.049
So if he needed his regiment to advance, the order went to the flagbearer.
00:15:08.049 --> 00:15:12.129
He moved the regiment forward, and the regiment followed that flag.
00:15:12.129 --> 00:15:16.210
If he needed the regiment to retreat, the flag bearer went back.
00:15:16.210 --> 00:15:30.450
If that flag bearer took his staff and planted it in the ground, every man of the regiment knew their job was to defend their that battle flag and the regiment's position on the battlefield to the last man if necessary.
00:15:31.570 --> 00:15:35.169
That's the old saying, uh, rally around the flag.
00:15:35.490 --> 00:15:36.370
It certainly is.
00:15:36.370 --> 00:15:38.129
It comes from the Civil War.
00:15:38.129 --> 00:15:43.090
Uh, the game I played as a child, capture the flag, comes from the Civil War.
00:15:43.090 --> 00:15:57.169
The Confederates recognized the surest way to dishearten and confuse the Union troops was by dropping the color bear, by killing the color bear, or even better, by capturing that Union battle flag.
00:15:57.169 --> 00:16:06.929
Union troops recognized this, of course, about the Confederate banners also, and it became a very deadly um game, if you will, of capture the flag.
00:16:06.929 --> 00:16:12.129
Some of the most intense casualties usually took place around the color guard.
00:16:12.129 --> 00:16:23.169
Um, we have instances of entire color guards being killed in single battles, and um uh one battle up to nine men died carrying the regiment's battle flag.
00:16:23.169 --> 00:16:26.289
That was the 24th Michigan at the Battle of Gettysburg.
00:16:26.529 --> 00:16:43.009
I think you in your literature that I reviewed before uh talking to you today, uh it talked about the flag bearer had basically a death sentence in many cases uh for taking that uh that duty.
00:16:43.009 --> 00:16:53.889
And one of the interesting things I I learned was that they picked the tallest guys they could to carry the flag into into battle.
00:16:54.049 --> 00:17:10.130
And uh yeah, they they liked them to be tall and they liked them to be of the highest moral character, so these were not the um the dredges of the regiment that were stepping up to volunteer for the duty, and many of them were volunteers.
00:17:10.130 --> 00:17:12.930
I mean, they volunteered to carry the colors.
00:17:12.930 --> 00:17:22.930
We had an incredible story here from Lansing of a man who uh volunteered to carry the colors in one fight and sent a letter home to his mother here in Lansing.
00:17:22.930 --> 00:17:24.849
Charles Foster was his name.
00:17:24.849 --> 00:17:28.690
And he said, You know, I volunteered to carry the flag in the last fight.
00:17:28.690 --> 00:17:33.089
And I know you're wondering why I would have volunteered for such a dangerous duty.
00:17:33.089 --> 00:17:40.210
He said, I was afraid that if I didn't volunteer, that the colonel would have to pick a man who had dependent children at home.
00:17:40.210 --> 00:17:45.089
And he said, Me being free and single, I figured I wouldn't be missed if I was killed.
00:17:45.089 --> 00:17:55.089
Um in the next battle, Foster was in fact killed carrying the third Michigan's battle flag that was at the Battle of Fair Oaks down in the peninsula campaign.
00:17:55.329 --> 00:18:01.730
So so the flag when they brought it back, uh, and I think you said it was in 1869.
00:18:01.730 --> 00:18:03.170
Uh 66.
00:18:03.170 --> 00:18:04.369
66.
00:18:04.369 --> 00:18:08.690
So that was uh uh essentially a year after the war ended.
00:18:09.329 --> 00:18:10.369
It was, yeah.
00:18:10.369 --> 00:18:13.890
So so did they gather all the flags back?
00:18:13.890 --> 00:18:16.049
Well, yes and no.
00:18:16.049 --> 00:18:23.650
So the men had been ordered to return their colors to their respective states.
00:18:23.650 --> 00:18:29.009
So a lot of the northern states were having similar ceremonies around the time of ours.
00:18:29.009 --> 00:18:40.529
Some of the men, and I don't blame them one bit, were shall we say, reluctant to turn over their battle flags to the maybe dubious care of the state of Michigan.
00:18:40.529 --> 00:18:47.569
So some of the boys held on to them, including the boys of the 10th Michigan Infantry Regiment, which formed in Flint.
00:18:47.569 --> 00:18:55.650
Um, they held on to their original presentation flag, and it shows up periodically at their regimental reunions.
00:18:55.650 --> 00:19:00.210
You can see depictions of it, and you know, and photographs, images of it.
00:19:00.210 --> 00:19:10.450
Um, the last recollection we have of that presentation flag, it was in the um the ownership of one of the last men who was had survived from the regiment.
00:19:10.450 --> 00:19:16.450
And um uh we have a sneaking suspicion that it could have possibly been buried uh with Mr.
00:19:16.450 --> 00:19:19.250
Barney when um when he passed away.
00:19:19.490 --> 00:19:20.450
What was his name?
00:19:20.690 --> 00:19:24.210
Uh Marvin Barney was his name, and he was from Flint.
00:19:24.210 --> 00:19:36.289
Uh we found his obituaries, and um kind of sadly for us, there's a number of references to the fact that his coffin was uh quote unquote festooned with flags.
00:19:36.289 --> 00:19:40.849
And um, we have a sneaking suspicion that it could have possibly been buried.
00:19:40.849 --> 00:19:41.970
Maybe it wasn't.
00:19:41.970 --> 00:19:50.450
Maybe it's in some citizen of Flint, maybe in a trunk or uh uh you know in a barn or an attic somewhere in Flint and it still survives.
00:19:51.329 --> 00:19:53.490
Well, hopefully it's not at the pawn shop.
00:19:53.490 --> 00:19:55.089
I hope not.
00:19:55.089 --> 00:19:57.569
Well, look, let's uh switch gears here for a second.
00:19:57.569 --> 00:20:02.849
David Norris is the one who uh I must thank for introducing me to this.
00:20:02.849 --> 00:20:06.450
He's been talking to me about this for about the last three or four months.
00:20:06.450 --> 00:20:13.490
Uh, David, uh, tell us a story about the 10th Regiment and its flag and your involvement with it.
00:20:13.890 --> 00:20:18.130
Well, the 10th Michigan Infantry, as Matt said, was formed in Flint.
00:20:18.130 --> 00:20:21.329
And these were community gatherings.
00:20:21.329 --> 00:20:32.130
And while it was formed in Flint, it was made up of Genesee County, Le Pierre County, Saginaw County uh men who joined here in Flint.
00:20:32.130 --> 00:20:43.009
My great-grandfather, Talman Owen, came from Almond and joined the 10th and served through the entire war.
00:20:43.009 --> 00:20:45.650
Uh I've always known that.
00:20:45.650 --> 00:20:47.250
We've always talked in the family.
00:20:47.250 --> 00:20:52.609
Our family, um, our family history is pretty well kept.
00:20:52.609 --> 00:20:55.970
And uh so I knew of Talman Owen.
00:20:55.970 --> 00:21:05.009
I knew that he was wounded at the Battle of Peachtree Creek in taking of Atlanta, uh, and he was restored to service.
00:21:05.009 --> 00:21:10.450
And so it has to be, it's over a year ago.
00:21:10.450 --> 00:21:17.170
Uh I wondered I didn't even know what the battle flag of the 10th Michigan looked like.
00:21:17.170 --> 00:21:38.049
And uh so I'm one of those individuals that I realize the um the importance of our state representatives on things having to do with uh with state government, and contacted uh representative Cheryl Kennedy and said, Does anybody know what the battle flag of the 10th Michigan looks like?
00:21:38.049 --> 00:21:48.210
I'm assuming they contacted Matt and I got a photograph back of this poor, tattered piece of silk.
00:21:48.210 --> 00:21:55.650
And uh first I thought I I don't think that could be the battle flag of the 10th, and then learned, yes, it is.
00:21:55.650 --> 00:22:05.890
In fact, it one of three that um that we know existed, and uh Madden Save the Flags has two of them.
00:22:05.890 --> 00:22:41.809
And the uh the one that I was most interested in was the one that they fought on, uh fought under that was presented to them by Colonel Lum, their colonel through the entire war, and Lum presented them with a flag in the uh in late 1863, I think it was it was created, and they had it at the beginning of 1864, and they were a veteran regiment by then, meaning that um a majority of the people had re-enlisted.
00:22:41.809 --> 00:22:44.130
Their term of enlistment had been up.
00:22:44.130 --> 00:22:53.329
And so Colonel Lum uh presented them with a flag, uh, much like what this the prototype that's uh that's behind me.
00:22:53.329 --> 00:23:06.849
And it fascinated me, and I decided I really wanted to create for no particular reason a full-size replica of what that battle flag looked like in 1864.
00:23:06.849 --> 00:23:14.930
And uh, and that began my uh journey of research, and I just had such great cooperation.
00:23:14.930 --> 00:23:23.250
Um, I think Matt and I have become friends uh in the year of him having to deal with some of my silly questions, uh silly to me sometimes.
00:23:23.250 --> 00:23:34.369
He always takes it very seriously uh about the flag so that when we create it, when I recreate it, uh it will be very close to the way it looked in 1864.
00:23:35.569 --> 00:23:39.250
So the flag behind you is from 1864, is that right?
00:23:39.569 --> 00:23:41.890
This is the design from 1864.
00:23:42.210 --> 00:23:51.410
And the names on that flag, maybe you could turn around and get your camera zeroed in on it and show us what what what those names are and what the significance of it is.
00:23:51.809 --> 00:24:05.089
Well, when Lum presented uh this particular flag to the 10th Michigan, uh I'm assuming it was his decision to put battle honors on it, and many of the flags would have battle honors.
00:24:05.089 --> 00:24:08.289
I mean, the designs were not specific.
00:24:08.289 --> 00:24:18.690
And so this starts with the 10th Michigan infantry, and then it goes from Farmington to Tunnel Hill.
00:24:19.809 --> 00:24:26.210
And the the significant place these are places where there's actually they actually carried the flag into battle.
00:24:26.849 --> 00:24:29.569
Absolutely, and areas that they had taken.
00:24:29.569 --> 00:24:48.769
And what's interesting is the Siege of Corinth was a massive engagement uh that the uh 10th was involved in uh in support, but nowadays people uh kind of focus that engagement on a place called Shiloh.
00:24:48.769 --> 00:24:56.769
But the 10th was in support um north maybe in east or west, I'm not sure.
00:24:56.769 --> 00:25:02.049
But the 10th either was in support or on the front lines.
00:25:02.049 --> 00:25:06.769
And so once they had this flag, that was their history up to that point.
00:25:06.769 --> 00:25:11.890
And nothing else was added to this flag.
00:25:11.890 --> 00:25:17.569
And they had some horrendous fighting going through Georgia.
00:25:17.569 --> 00:25:25.410
In fact, I mentioned the Battle of Peachtree Creek, and the Battle of Peachtree Creek was the taking of Atlanta, that was the significance.
00:25:25.410 --> 00:25:43.730
And accounts of that time uh people would relate that uh there was no greater carnage ever in such a localized area than the Battle of Peachtree Creek, and the Confederate Army had jumped the Union Army as they were moving on Atlanta, is what happened.
00:25:43.730 --> 00:25:48.210
So nothing else was added to this, this flag.
00:25:48.529 --> 00:25:52.769
Do you know how many people from Flint were engaged in that battle?
00:25:54.930 --> 00:26:00.369
I think what you say from Flint, from the 10th Michigan, yeah.
00:26:00.369 --> 00:26:05.730
Um I I would think it'd be close to 900, don't you think, Matt?
00:26:05.890 --> 00:26:06.690
I wouldn't think.
00:26:06.690 --> 00:26:11.809
I know they'd re-enlisted, and I think didn't they have almost 400 men when they re-enlisted?
00:26:11.809 --> 00:26:12.769
Was it 400?
00:26:12.769 --> 00:26:14.049
300 and some.
00:26:14.049 --> 00:26:16.769
I I have it here somewhere in my notes.
00:26:16.769 --> 00:26:21.569
Um, but um I could look that up actually.
00:26:21.569 --> 00:26:38.450
But there were, and I think Dave was kind of referring to this, there were other regiments that were also engaged from Michigan, um, and regiments that participated in Sherman's March to the Sea, which you know Dave is referring to, uh, including the 4th Michigan Cav.
00:26:38.450 --> 00:26:42.289
Um, we have their battle flags also, and they formed in Flint.
00:26:42.289 --> 00:26:44.769
They were mostly Flint boys, also.
00:26:44.769 --> 00:26:50.690
In fact, that regiment had the distinction of capturing Jefferson Davis at the end of the war.
00:26:51.490 --> 00:27:01.730
So the the Michigan regiment was the one that actually captured the the leader of the Confederate Army.
00:27:01.970 --> 00:27:02.930
Yeah, sure was.
00:27:02.930 --> 00:27:09.170
Yeah, that was a Confederate B, I guess is a better way to put it.
00:27:09.170 --> 00:27:10.289
Yeah, yeah.
00:27:10.450 --> 00:27:11.970
Uh wow, that's amazing.
00:27:11.970 --> 00:27:14.769
And the fourth was organized in Flint.
00:27:15.170 --> 00:27:17.170
Yeah, they were Flint boys, yeah.
00:27:17.170 --> 00:27:20.210
Majority of them, like Dave said, with the 10th.
00:27:20.210 --> 00:27:36.849
Some of the companies came from different parts of the state, but um, they organized and rendezvoused at Flint, and um, they had a beautiful, beautiful battle flag, also two flags in our collection, like the 10th has um that were carried by the boys.
00:27:36.849 --> 00:27:38.609
And in fact, I have a little replica.
00:27:38.609 --> 00:27:45.970
I didn't mean to jump to me again, but there's a replica of the fourth calve right behind me in my window there.
00:27:48.450 --> 00:27:49.730
Wow, it's in your window.
00:27:49.730 --> 00:27:50.450
Wow.
00:27:50.450 --> 00:27:57.650
So how many uh um I know it's terrible.
00:27:57.650 --> 00:28:15.170
My dad was my dad was a disabled veteran, was a disabled veteran and uh served in the United States Army Air Corps and then later the Air Force, but I can't ever keep track of all these different uh organizational structure uh right things.
00:28:15.170 --> 00:28:33.329
So uh for somebody like me who has not only a fading memory but a lack of knowledge, could you tell us how many people from the Flint area, if you know, actually participated in various battles in the Civil War?
00:28:33.650 --> 00:28:37.730
You know, I'd have to do the research on that just from the Flint area.
00:28:37.730 --> 00:28:41.089
I don't know if you you have that number at the top of your head, Dave.
00:28:41.329 --> 00:28:42.289
No, I really don't.
00:28:42.289 --> 00:28:48.529
And even uh with the uh the 10th, I think I have bulk somewhere, I have bulk casualty numbers.
00:28:48.529 --> 00:28:54.609
Of course, in the days, as many people uh died from disease as died in battle.
00:28:54.609 --> 00:29:00.210
I mean the attrition rate was was pretty bad from the time they marched out of out of Flint.
00:29:00.609 --> 00:29:03.650
What was the bulk uh casualty?
00:29:04.849 --> 00:29:10.210
From Michigan, we had we had 90,000 who fought and 15,000 deaths.
00:29:10.210 --> 00:29:18.049
But as Dave said, it was kind of unusual to have a regiment have more men die of wounds than actually died of disease.
00:29:18.049 --> 00:29:22.210
Um, dysentery, you know, was a horrible killer during the war.
00:29:22.210 --> 00:29:33.490
And you know, a lot of these boys from Michigan had never been farther than maybe 20 or 30 miles from their homes before the war and had never been exposed to a lot of these diseases.
00:29:33.490 --> 00:29:36.930
You know, sanitation was deplorable during the war.
00:29:36.930 --> 00:29:39.410
So most of them succumbed to disease.
00:29:39.410 --> 00:29:45.809
We only had one regiment from Michigan who had more men die of wounds than actually died of disease.
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