Hoag Library Looking to Sell 26th Regiment United States Colored Troops Civil War Flag they Can't Afford Anymore

Belle Montgomery

2nd Lieutenant
Joined
Oct 25, 2017
Location
44022
ALBION — Hidden with other treasures in a small archive room at Hoag Library is a worn flag.

Sporting 13 red and white stripes and 35 stars — with “26 U.S.C.T” sewn over the stripes — the Civil War-era relic is from the 26th Regiment United States Colored Troops, also called the 26th Regiment New York Infantry (Colored).

The 26th was an African-American combat unit and one of the three black troop units from New York which fought in the Civil War. And the library is looking to auction the historic flag out of concern for its future.

“We can’t afford to display this,” said Library Director Betty Sue Miller as she ran her hand over the glass of a wooden frame dating back at best guess to the 1940s. “We can’t afford to maintain it. We can’t do what should be done with it. The feeling on the part of the board members who proposed this first was it should be somewhere where it can properly maintained and resorted if need be — at least preserved in a way we can’t.”

At one time the flag used to hang in the old Swan Library as part of its Civil War collection in the Curtis Room. How it came to be in the library’s possession in the first place...
REST OF ARTICLE WITH PIC: https://www.thedailynewsonline.com/bdn01/hoag-looking-to-sell-civil-war-era-flag-20190307
 
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