LiveAuctionTalkcom Highlights Gen Jeb Stuart Memorabilia in its Weekly Free Article
Released on = March 6, 2007, 9:36 am
Press Release Author = Rosemary McKittrick
Industry = Internet & Online
Press Release Summary = Rosemary McKittrick's website is a valuable resource of pricing information for art and antiques. Visit the site and sign up for a free weekly subscription.
Press Release Body = March 6, 2007--- "My darling One--My battlefield flag, the beautiful one you made fell from the tent-front the other day into the fire," said Jeb Stuart, Confederate Civil War General, in a note to his wife Flora.
"It has proudly waved over many battlefields and if ever I need a motive for braving danger and trials I found it by looking upon that symbol placed in my hands by my cherished wife," Stuart added.
The same red-wool bunting flag, showing the Confederate "Southern Cross" with its 13 stars and burn marks was retuned to Stuart's wife in 1862.
Most likely, it was the same flag at Stuart's side during his battles.
Little could Flora know, in two years, her husband, one of the most famous and colorful cavaliers in the Army of Northern Virginia would also be snuffed out.
When Gen. Robert E. Lee learned Stuart was dying at the age of 31, he said in a shaken voice, "I can scarcely think about him without weeping."
Because of the fighting, a disruption in railroad service and a rainstorm, Stuart's wife was late in reaching her husband's bedside. After a 10 hour journey, she entered the house where he lay.
A certain quiet all around her revealed the inevitable. Words were unnecessary. Flora went and sat alone in a candlelit room beside her dead husband.
For the rest of her life, Flora wore black to mourn Stuart's death and displayed the bullet-riddled, burnt battle flag on her wall. She died on May 10, 1923.
On Dec. 1 and 2, Heritage Auction Galleries in Dallas, Texas, featured a selection of items belonging to Gen. Jeb Stuart in its Civil War History auction. Among them was Stuart's flag.
Read the entire article at www.LiveAuctionTalk.com.
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