Historical accounts have long credited Waterloo, New York, with establishing the tradition now known as Memorial Day. That small town first held an “annual, community-wide event, during which businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags,” on May 5, 1866.

However, Felice Leon of The Root explained “The Black History of Memorial Day” in a fascinating video posted on Facebook over the weekend.

After the Civil War ended, African-American workmen dug up more than 250 bodies from a mass grave in Charleston, South Carolina. The men gave those former Union army prisoners of war a proper burial, and on May 1, 1865, African Americans led a “huge parade” to honor their memory. Historian David Blight described that event as “in effect the first original performance of Memorial Day.” The video is worth watching:

Speaking of fallout from the Civil War, Caroline Cummings of CBS-2 News reported on May 21 that South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster has asked Governor Kim Reynolds for permission to keep permanently a “Big Red” state flag. An Iowa soldier captured that flag, which has been on loan to The Citadel military academy in Charleston since 2010. My advice to the citizens of South Carolina: don’t start a war by seceding from the country if you want to maintain possession of all your state flags. An estimated 76,534 Iowa men served in the Civil War, of whom 13,169 died–thirteen times more than the number of Iowans killed in all military conflicts since Vietnam.

This is an open thread: all topics welcome. Memorial Day can be a triggering event for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. The National Alliance on Mental Illness has compiled links to resources and programs for “military service members and veterans who have experienced a mental health condition, such as PTSD or depression.” Targeted PTSD programs for veterans are also available at the VA clinics in Iowa City and Des Moines.

Some historical news not related to today’s holiday: Marian Wilson Kimber described her ongoing research about the Tama Philharmonic Society during the 1920s. Women’s music clubs like that group in an Iowa town of 2,600 people “had a major impact on American musical life” in the last century, Wilson Kimber writes.

UPDATE: A reader shared with me a letter from historian Greg Biggs, an expert on Civil War flags. Biggs was the guest speaker at the Des Moines Civil War Roundtable in April. In his opinion, the Citadel History Group is trying to commit “historical fraud” by making unfounded claims about the Palmetto flag. Biggs wrote this letter to Des Moines Register journalist William Petroski after Petroski reported on South Carolina’s request to keep the flag.

Mr. Petroski,

Please allow me to introduce myself. I am a Civil War flags historian of some 28 years. I have been published on the topic in magazine articles and an upcoming book, consulted with many museums and auction houses on Civil War flags and have presented lectures on Civil War flags at several museums including the National Civil War Museum in Pennsylvania; the American Civil War Museum in Virginia and the Texas Civil War Museum in Texas along with Civil War Roundtables. I also belong to an online group of noted flag historians including state museum and West Point Museum curators with some 300 years of combined knowledge. Many of our members have also been published on Civil War flags. I have files on over 2000 Civil War flags both existing and lost and I add to that almost every week. I also lecture nationally to Civil War history groups and conferences on other aspects of the war. I lead Civil War tours for the US Army and civilian groups on a regular basis.

Some years ago, Ted Curtis and the Citadel History Group, contacted our flag group asking for help in identifying the large red Palmetto flag held by Iowa. I saw this flag along with numerous others on a research trip to Iowa some 20 years ago and knew of its existence. Mr. Curtis and his group were basically trying to make a square peg fit into a round hole and were adamant from the start that this flag was the same one used by the Citadel Battery at Morris Island in January 1861. His group kept trying to convince us that they were right and we kept telling them they had zero proof including a period drawing of the Citadel Battery flag that did not show a crescent on it – only the Palmetto Tree. (As a side note – the Palmetto flag of South Carolina, still used as their state flag today, came in a myriad of colors and styles in 1860-1861. I have numerous files on them.)

Finally, one of the Citadel group told us, “they don’t want to help us,” to which we replied, “we don’t want to help you make up something that isn’t.” They issued their report anyway, which I have a copy of, declaring that the flag from Iowa, taken by Willard baker of the 20th Iowa Infantry in Mobile (more on this later) was “Big Red” and thus the flag flown by the Citadel Battery in 1861. Their slim evidence was one of the former battery members was with a battery at Fort Blakely, Alabama on 1865 and that is where the flag was taken by Baker. In case you are not familiar with the Mobile Bay area, Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely, both Confederate defensive fortifications attacked by the Union in 1865, are across the bay from Mobile on the eastern side. Their report would get an “F” from any good history professor as they tossed off our objections with the phrase, “not likely,” as it did not fit their pre-conceived theory. One of our members, the now retired curator of the Alabama Department of Archives and History, is former National Park Service and he served in Charleston at Fort Sumter at that time. He is very familiar with the Civil War history of that city and reported that at least two Confederate blockade runners were stuck in Mobile that had Charleston connections. His theory was that the red Palmetto flag came from one of these ships. Naval and civilian ships carried a number of flags then (and still do today) and ships from South Carolina would indeed have Palmetto flags on board. Ted Curtis and his group’s response in their report? “Not likely.”

One of their members claimed that the flag was made by Charleston sail maker Hugh Vincent who did in fact make large state and Confederate First National flags along with several other flag makers in the city (all of whom I have files for). Their “expert” stated that it was due to how the crescent was placed on the flag. I challenged him and told him that only one or two known Vincent made flags still exist and that he had no other flags to base his conclusions on and when I asked him for his sources he blew me off. Hardly a professional historian’s response.

I will be blunt – basically Ted Curtis and the Citadel Group have committed historic fraud. How do I know? Several reasons. Willard Baker, when he donated this flag and a Confederate First National he also captured to Iowa, stated that he got them in Mobile – not Fort Blakely. In my many years of experience a soldier who captured a flag in combat usually vividly recalled the circumstances of that capture in both period and post-war accounts. Baker stated Mobile – not Fort Blakely. Secondly, in a recent search of online post-war newspapers I came across several articles in Iowa papers that mentioned events where Baker brought out the flags and placed them on display. He clearly stated that he got them from a house in Mobile and once stated the house was on fire at the time. Ted Curtis and his group are basically calling Baker a liar, or in the parlance of their “report,” his capture statement would be “not likely.” Ted Curtis and his group are not aware of these post-war newspaper articles that I have found. Ted Curtis and his group are not flag historians.

I sent these post-war articles to Leo Landis, a curator of the Iowa State Museum, and they have them in their files. They are staying out of the capture controversy as much as possible. I can supply them to you if interested in hopes that you would like to write a follow-up story on this and refute everything that Ted Curtis thinks which is not hard to do. I have almost every email from the Citadel Group in my file for this flag along with their very flawed report in my very thick file for this flag.

I am currently planning on doing an article on this historical fraud for one of the national Civil War publications this summer and I fully intend to blow the Citadel History Group out of the water with it. I only seek historic truth which stands in stark contrast with Ted Curtis and the Citadel History Group.

It is my fervent hope that Iowa does not contribute to this historical fraud by loaning the Big Red flag to the Citadel on a permanent basis. It is not the flag they think it is and they cannot prove otherwise.

I would be happy to chat with you by phone or email if this is of interest to you. I took journalism classes in college long ago and was taught that stories evolve as more evidence surfaces. This is indeed an evolving story and I have the evidence for it.

Lastly, I was in Des Moines last month giving a lecture to the Des Moines Civil War Roundtable on a non-flag topic, but we mentioned the controversy at the meeting somewhat. Time to drive a final nail into that coffin.

Sincerely,

Greg Biggs
Clarksville, TN (931) 217-4265

president, Clarksville Civil War Roundtable
program chair, Nashville Civil War Roundtable
Member, Company of Military Historians

Top image: Screen shot from “The Black History of Memorial Day,” a video produced by The Root website.