28 January 2011
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Custer
A bloodstained flag found under the body of a soldier who perished at the Battle of Little Bighorn was sold by Sotheby’s in New York just before Christmas for $2.2 million. ...
A bloodstained flag found under the body of a soldier who perished at the Battle of Little Bighorn was sold by Sotheby’s in New York just before Christmas for $2.2 million.
The 32” x 26” swallow-tailed battalion guidon bears 13 red and white stripes and 35 gold stars in a double circular pattern, and is the only one known to have survived the battle of 28 June 1876.
Concerned about containing Sitting Bull’s hostile forces before they could separate, Custer opted for speed rather than take Gatling Guns on his expedition and eventually led an isolated column of the 7th Cavalry against a combined army of Lakota Sioux, Arapaho and Cheyenne warriors numbering, some say, into the thousands.
The guidon of the 7th, found by a burial party at Custer’s ‘last stand’ was immortalised by Charles Colbrath’s account ‘Memento of a Massacre’, first published in March, 1895.
The banner was sold by the Detroit Institute of Arts which originally acquired the flag in 1895 for only $54.
Find this news story and more in the February/March 2011 issue of Classic Arms & Militaria