Feb 21, 2008 - Sale 2137

Sale 2137 - Lot 271

Price Realized: $ 9,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 8,000 - $ 10,000
REGIMENTAL FLAG OF THE 9TH REGIMENT OF COLORED VOLUNTEERS (MILITARY.) Regimental flag of the 9th Regiment of United States Volunteers. Double-sided silk with embroidered appliques and edged with gold silk fringe; measuring 69 x 52 inches with a medium blue field and embroidered charge of a spread-winged eagle, 23 x 18 inches with a 4 x 4 1/8 inch U.S. shield on its chest. The shield itself is adorned with thirteen stars and stripes. Clasped in its beak, the eagle has a 20-inch banner with "E Pluribus Unum" embroidered across it. In the right talon is a 6 inch long olive branch, and in the left, three arrows. In an arc above the eagle are thirteen white embroidered stars. Extending downward from the first star and upward toward the last is a 3 inch wide red silk banner that reads "9th Regiment United States Volunteers." Three sides of the flag are tasseled in gold. With the original oak staff, 118 inches with a gold-colored metal eagle on a ball at the top which threads onto a 3 x 1 inch "sleeve." The staff itself is in two parts, one threading into the other. Np, circa 1898-1900
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Additional Details

The 9th Regiment was mustered in New Orleans under the command of Colonel Charles J. Crane between June 18 and July 16, 1898. Tropical disease had decimated the regular troops serving in the Spanish-American War. Colored troops, referred to as "Immunes," because of the misguided belief that they were immune to tropical disease, were sent to replace them. The 9th arrived in Cuba on August 22, 1898 where they served for almost a year and a half. The soldiers of the 9th Regiment were no more immune to disease than their white comrades and by the time they were mustered out of service in 1899, they had lost 3 officers and 73 enlisted men to malaria and other tropical diseases.