Rare Union battle flag carried by black troops hits auction block
DENVER, Pa. — A flag that was carried into battle by a black Union regiment during the Civil War and hand-painted by an acclaimed African American artist is going up for auction in Pennsylvania.
The 127th United States Colored Infantry Regiment’s flag depicts a black soldier waving goodbye to Columbia, the white female personification of America, beneath a banner reading, “We Will Prove Ourselves Men.” It was one of at least 11 such flags painted by David Bustill Bowser, an artist, activist and son of a fugitive slave. It’s the only known surviving flag and is being auctioned off June 13 at Morphy Auctions in Denver, Pa., about 60 miles west of Philadelphia.
The 127th Regiment’s battle flag had been on display for years at the Grand Army of the Republic Museum in Philadelphia, but the board recently decided to auction it to help bolster the museum’s finances, said Dr. Andy Waskie, vice president and historian at the museum.
“It’s such an enormously significant relic,” he said. “We were forced with great reluctance to sell it.”
It’s expected to fetch at least $250,000.
About 11,000 black union troops trained at Camp William Penn, just outside Philadelphia, on land that belonged to abolitionist and women’s rights advocate Lucretia Mott. The troops weren’t permitted to join state outfits, so federal black regiments were formed, said Joseph Becton, of the African American Museum in Philadelphia.
Bowser had a successful banner and sign business in Philadelphia and was chosen to design regimental flags for those troops. Supervisors at the camp opposed the idea of a black man receiving the commission, but he pleaded his case and was eventually granted the job.
Bowser’s works were the first widely viewed, positive images of African Americans painted by an African American, according to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
Bowser made flags for the 11 regiments that trained at Camp William Penn. Seven of the flags were given to the U.S. Military Academy around 1900, and they were destroyed in the 1940s. Photographs of the destroyed flags still exist.
Bowser was a well-known artist, successful business owner and anti-slavery activist. His early paintings included landscapes, portraits and banners for organizations like firehouse companies and political parties. His most noted works include portraits of former President Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist John Brown.
The images on Bowser’s regimental flags were designed to be inflammatory to Confederate soldiers, Becton said.
For instance, the 127th Regiment’s flag from a distance appears to show the black soldier and white woman holding hands, but actually she’s holding a flagpole, and he’s bidding her farewell.