Flag of the 19th Mississippi Cavalry Battalion

I notice there doesn't seem to be catalogue number on this flag like you find on captured flags that were returned. Is this definitely authentic?
 
Only the flags sent to the U.S. War Department have a capture number on them; this flag was sent to the state of Wisconsin, where it remained until it was given back to Mississippi in 1943.
 
I'm not questioning its authenticity because I honestly don't know enough to do that. But it looks authentically worn and frail. The thing I find odd is the uniform way the edges have been trimmed--as if with giant pinking shears. Perhaps by some ill-advised conservator, trimming away rotted and frayed threads? What do you folks think?
 
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