For the past 117 years, a silk American flag has hung in a glass case in the main hall of the Fifth Maine Regiment Museum on Peaks Island. It belonged to the Fifth Maine Regiment, one of the 39 regiments from Maine that fought in the Civil War. The unit was presented with the flag in June of 1861 on its way from Maine to Washington D.C. It was given by a group of Maine ladies who were living in New York at the time.
The regiment carried the flag for its entire three-year term of service. The flag was present at all the major battles that the regiment participated in, including Antietam, the Battle of Fredericksburg, Rappahannock Station, the Battle of the Wilderness, the Bloody Angle at Spotsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor and Gettysburg. It was never captured by Confederate forces.
After the war, the flag returned to Maine with the regiment. For years, the regiment held reunions on Peaks Island. This was before cottages and summer homes became common there, so the members of the regiment usually slept in tents. Families would accompany them to the reunions, and after encouragement by their wives and daughters, the members of the unit built a Regimental Hall in 1888. It is not known who kept the flag between 1865 and 1888, but once the building was completed, the flag was given a place of honor inside. The regiment held reunions at the hall through the 1930s and many of the original soldiers’ descendants gathered there until 1948. In 1955, the building was given in trust to the newly formed Fifth Maine Regiment Community Center, which has been the steward of the building and its collection of historic objects since that time.
For the past year, the executive board of the Fifth Maine Regiment Museum has been working towards long-term preservation of the flag.
“I knew the flag had to be taken care of,” said Kim MacIsaac, the curator of the museum. In 2004, the collection was appraised by Ron Harvey of Tuckerbrook Conservation. It was no surprise when he recommended that the flag be given first priority for treatment. His recommendation got the ball moving.”
The board enlisted the help of Gwen Spicer, a professional textile conservator. She was chosen because of her extensive experience with textile preservation, including her work supervising “Save the Colors,” a project to preserve the Maine State Museum’s flag collection.
The flag will undergo a lengthy, complicated process. A high-quality photograph will be taken of the flag before it undergoes treatment. This photograph will hang in the display case in the flag’s absence. Next, the flag will be removed from the case and transported to Spicer’s workshop. There, she will vacuum it to remove particulate matter. She will remove the creases and bulges through humidification. During humidification, the flag is exposed to highly controlled humidity, causing the fibers to relax, thus allowing them to be straightened and aligned. The flag is then dried under weights. After determining whether or not the dyes will bleed, an additional moisture treatment may be applied to remove soluble residues. Fragmented stars will be secured together with a sheer polyester fabric called Stabiltex. Stabilitex will also encapsulate the entire flag to further stabilize and protect it.
The total budget for the project is $20,281. This includes preservation of the flag itself, the photograph of the flag, and a custom-built case in which to store and display the restored flag. So far, $18,100 has been raised towards the preservation effort.
Major sources of funding have included grants from MBNA, the Edward H. Davies Benevolent Fund, the Davis Family Foundation and the Peaks Island Fund. Individual donations have also been instrumental in reaching the current total. The Fifth Maine has received donations from the descendants of many regiment members, including the family of the Fifth Maine Regiment’s first commander, Col. Mark H. Dunnell. It was Col. Dunnell who accepted the flag for the Regiment in New York. The Third Maine Infantry Re-enactors also contributed..
“People have been very supportive. The community has been very receptive. The fundraising went surprisingly well and surprisingly quickly,” said MacIsaac. Originally, the fundraising was expected to take two years. Because of the amount of support that has been shown, the museum will be able to proceed ahead of schedule.
The museum has also held educational events. “Save the Flag Day” took place on June 12. The event featured a fashion show of Civil War era dress, storytelling by Bill Hinderer, and period music by the a cappella quartet the Uncalled Four. The Fifth Maine also hosted a Flag Day for the area schools, which was attended by Peaks Island Elementary School, Long Island School, Chebeague Island School and Cliff Island School.
MacIsaac noted that residents of Peaks Island often bring visitors to the Museum and point out the flag. They tell their guests about the significance of the flag and about the restoration project. The whole community shares a sense of pride and increased connection to the flag as a result of the project.
The flag is just one of many pieces in the Fifth Maine collection. Other items of note include drums played at Gettysburg, relief maps of the Andersonville Prison, numerous photographs, petrified hardtack, Confederate money, a Confederate infantry jacket, a piece of the U.S.S. MAINE, and a walking cane that used to belong to Jefferson Davis.
The flag will be sent away in September for the conservation project and should return by May of 2006. There will be a new exhibit featuring the flag and some items new to the Fifth Maine’s collection. MacIsaac says she hopes the new exhibit will put a human face on things, making the events surrounding the flag more real to museum visitors.
— Michele Tranes recently completed a year as an Island Institute Fellow on Peaks.