SYMMES TOWNSHIP — The most visible symbol of an Ohio Civil War regiment — its battle flag — is coming home to the spot where the unit's soldiers mustered some 140 years ago.

        The battle flag of the 89th Ohio Volunteer Infantry — stolen by the Confederates in 1864 — is being returned by descendants of the private who got it back 15 years after the war.

        Since its return to the county in 1880, the flag has been kept safe in a cedar chest. The banner, valued at $40,000, was donated this month to the Camp Dennison Ohio Civil War Museum along Ohio 126. The 89th was made up of volunteers from Clermont, Brown, Highland and Ross counties.

An Ohio unit's Civil War banner has a new home in Camp Dennison. Marilyn Vaglia is a state regent. Behind her, from left: Gary Knepp, Mike Stretch and Larry Strayer. (Mike Simons photo) | ZOOM |

        The museum is on the site of the Union Army camp where units, including the 89th, mustered in the early 1860s to be sent to war. Camp Dennison would later become home to one of the North's largest Civil War military hospitals.

        “This flag comes from my mother's side, the Barnes side, from Williamsburg,” said Jerry Forbes, the former Mount Carmel resident who donated it. He retired to Cape Coral, Fla., four years ago.

        Last year, during a Civil War re-enactment on the Camp Dennison grounds surrounding the museum, Mr. Forbes' son, Jerry Raymond Forbes of Amelia, with his wife, Theresa, approached Mike Stretch and Gary Knepp of the museum's board and offered the flag.

        “You should have seen their eyes when they saw it,” Mrs. Forbes said.

        “I never had any idea of its worth,” said the elder Mr. Forbes, 69. “My motivation was always to give it to someone who would protect it and exhibit it for its history.”

TO HELP

Checks for the preservation of the 89th OVI Flag should be made payable to: “Regimental Flag Restoration,” Camp Dennison, Ohio, Civil War Museum. Address: Ohio Society Daughters of the American Revolution, c/o Karen Harman, 1027 N. Union St, Fostoria, Ohio 44830-2052 Donations can be made in person at the museum during operating hours, 1-5 p.m. May 6 to Nov. 11. All donations are tax deductible. Information: Mike Stretch, 513-272-7000 - Ext. 105.

        Mrs. Forbes said she and her husband offered the flag to the museum at Camp Dennison because, while small, it has an outstanding collection and offers a place for prominent display of the banner.

        The banner was captured by a Confederate cavalry raiding party near Dalton, Ga. in August 1864. Getting it back became a 15-year postwar quest of William McKendree Barnes of Williamsburg, a veteran of the 89th who simply wanted his unit's flag back.

        Today, the 6-by-6-foot blue silk battle flag is in the hands of textile conservator Fonda Thomsen in Keedysville, Md. She estimates it will cost about $13,000 to fully preserve the flag for museum display — a sum the museum board and the Ohio Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (OSDAR) don't have. The OSDAR oversees and owns the museum property. A fund drive is being launched.

        Ms. Thomsen, an independent conservator, formerly worked for the National Park Service and the Smithsonian Institution. She is under contract with the Ohio Historical Society to conserve about 200 Civil War-era national flags and battle flags in its collection.

        Ms. Thomsen said that after the war most flags used by the Army were given to their representative states by the federal government. “It is very unusual to discover a regimental Civil War flag in private ownership,” she said.

        Mr. Stretch said Mr. Barnes was upset by the way the flag came into Confederate hands and was determined to get it back. It was folded in a sutler wagon when the Confederate raiders took it. Because it wasn't taken in action, Mr. Barnes felt the rebels had no right to it.

        In 1870, Mr. Barnes discovered it was with a former Confederate cavalry officer, J.C. Duncan, in Talladega, Ala. He went there on June 30, 1880, and Mr. Duncan returned the banner without incident. Mr. Barnes took it home, Mr. Knepp said.

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