The state of Minnesota has refused a number of requests from the state of Virginia to return a Accomplice battle flag captured through the U.S. Civil Battle.
For years, a declare has circulated on social media that the state of Minnesota has repeatedly refused requests from the state of Virginia to return a battle flag captured from Accomplice troops through the U.S. Civil War.
One instance of the alleged story appeared on the Fb web page Better of Minnesota on July 6, 2024. The account posted a photograph (archived) of kids surrounding a show case containing what gave the impression to be a Accomplice battle flag.
(Fb account Better of Minnesota)
The submit’s caption learn:
Minnesota troops defeated and captured a accomplice flag from Virginia troops through the Civil Battle. To today, Virginia retains asking for it again and Minnesota retains telling these losers they cannot have it.
The identical declare has regularly appeared on different social media networks, together with X (archived), Bluesky (archived) and Reddit (archived), the place it has been posted a number of times on the r/todayilearned subreddit.
One such post (archived), which was created in 2018 and linked to a weblog post (archived) making the identical declare, learn:
TIL Minnesota Has Been Refusing to Return a Captured Accomplice Flag to Virginia for Extra Than a Century.
One commenter quipped in response: “Effectively, what are the foundations for seize the flag?”
Briefly, the declare is true: A member of the first Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment did seize the flag from the twenty eighth Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment on July 3, 1863, through the Battle of Gettysburg.
The flag is now a part of the collection of the Minnesota Historic Society, the place it has remained regardless of the state of Virginia and others making a number of requests to return it.
Based on an article published by the St. Paul Pioneer Press in 2017 (archived), the MNHS has denied seven separate requests to return the flag — in 1905, 1961, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2013. A consultant of the MNHS confirmed the group had acquired no extra requests since 2013.
4 of these requests — these made in 1961, 2000, 2003 and 2013 — have been made by Virginia governors or legislators, in line with the Pioneer Press. In the meantime, the 1905 request resulted from a nationwide order to return relics captured through the Civil Battle, the 1998 request was made by a bunch of Civil Battle reenactors primarily based in Virginia and the 2002 request got here from the U.S. Military’s chief of navy historical past.
Though the declare is true, two factors of clarification are value noting.
Flag Is Not the Official Nationwide Flag of the Confederacy
First, as a result of the flag is sq. in form, it’s most precisely described because the battle flag of the Military of Northern Virginia.
As defined in an article on the web site of the American Civil War Museum, the Accomplice States of America adopted a nationwide flag that integrated the iconography of the ANV’s battle flag in Might 1863, two months earlier than the Battle of Gettysburg.
Nonetheless, as defined in an entry of the Encyclopedia Virginia, an internet site operated by Virginia Humanities in partnership with the Library of Virginia, this nationwide flag was rectangular in form, and nearly all of it consisted of a plain white subject. A picture of what the nationwide flag of the CSA regarded like on the time of the Battle of Gettysburg could be seen here, courtesy of Encyclopedia Britannica’s entry on the historical past of the flag.
In different phrases, whereas the flag on the MNHS was certainly captured from a Accomplice soldier, it was not the official nationwide flag of the CSA.
MNHS Owns the Flag, Not the State of Minnesota
Second, the flag isn’t technically owned by the state of Minnesota. It’s owned by the MNHS — though the historic society is intently related to the state. Describing the precise relationship between the society and the state, an MNHS consultant mentioned:
MNHS is a non-profit group that has had a long-standing partnership with the State of Minnesota since our founding by the MN Territorial Legislature in 1849. We obtain important funding from the state of Minnesota. Our enterprise construction is that of an unbiased non-profit and, as such, we purchase, personal, and steward all of our collections, together with the flag. We stock out that work below our statutory obligation to protect Minnesota historical past for all Minnesotans now and sooner or later.
Based on group’s annual report for 2023, the newest 12 months out there, round two-thirds of the society’s working assist comes from the state of Minnesota. This budgetary assist means the state of Minnesota does have a point of sway over the society’s insurance policies, which is why Minnesota governors have been concerned in among the selections to not return the flag.
In 2000, for instance, then-Gov. Jesse Ventura was requested whether or not the state would think about returning the flag to Virginia, to which he responded: “Completely not. … Why? I imply, we gained,” in line with a Chicago Tribune report.
Equally, in line with an MPR Information report, then-Gov. Tim Pawlenty mentioned of the 2013 request:
I believe it might be a sacrilege to return it to them. It was one thing that was earned by means of the unimaginable braveness and valor [of] males who gave their lives and risked their lives to acquire it. And so far as I am involved, it is a closed topic.
In abstract, regardless of caveats about particulars of the possession of the flag and the exact terminology used to explain it, the central declare is true: The state of Virginia has made a number of requests for the flag to be returned, and the state of Minnesota has been concerned in denying a number of of these requests.
