By Frederick Walton, Historian, 6th North Carolina State Troops
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May/June 2017 program Listing
the North Carolina Grays Flag presentation |
On Wednesday, May 10, 2017 Rick Walton, Historian of Cedar Fork Rifles Preservation Society Inc. joined RaeLana Poteat, Curator of Political and Social History,
NC Museum of History and Robin Simonton, Director, Oakwood Cemetery to present: History à la Carte: Sophia’s Civil War Flag at the North Carolina Museum of History.
When the North Carolina Grays set off to fight during the Civil War, they carried a flag that was sewn and painted by Sophia Partridge, a Raleigh artist and teacher.
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| Sophia Partridge |
Robin Simonton, Director of Oakwood Cemetery, where Sophia is buried, talked about Sopha's life and her gravesite in Oakwood.See the Flag...
This fragile flag, normally kept is a secure, humidity controlled storage space in the North Carolina Museum of history, was put on display for this special program. Speakers and visitors had the rare opportunity to see the flag in person. and hear the curator, RaeLana Poteat discuss the construction of the flag, its present condition and what it will mean to conserve it.
...and learn about its adventures
Well that was my part, I presented a powerpoint presentation about the history of the flag.
For this blog, let's look at the rare photos I was able to take of this unique and fragile flag before it was returned to it's secure storage facility.
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The Fragile, silken North Carolina Grays Flag
on display May 10, 2017 |
RaeLana Poteat, Curator of Political and Social History, NC Museum of History was able to bring this flag out of storage and describe its construction and the present condition to us.
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Viewing the Flag
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Starting at the top left, She showed us the canton, where a state seal hand painted by Raleigh Artist Sophia Partridge is located. Beneath the picture is a banner with the words "The Old North State Forever". You can see the artistry, but also notice how the paint has cracked and, in some areas, flaked away.
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| Close up of Sophia Partridge's State Seal figures |
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This Photo shows the middle grommet of the "hoist", where the flag is tied to a flag pole.
Notice the hand stitched "grommet-hole" and the tear. |
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| Evidence of cracked, chipped and missing paint. |
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| Evidence of missing pieces of silk, demonstrating how very fragile this flag is. |
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| This portion of the body of the flag is composed of two pieces of silk sewn together to get the proper width. The silk is fairly ordinary dress quality silk, but is not heavy duty. In this photo you can see the staining and tearing of the body of lightweight silk. |
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This photo shows the very tangled silk fringe on the edge as well as the
top grommet which is torn and pulled out of shape.
The red cord used to tie the flag is probably not original to the flag. |
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| A rotated view of the hoist side and the grommet stitching and tears. Notice also the fine machine stitching along the edge of the flag and the painted letters with a black shadow behind the blue lettering. |
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| Close up of the Entire Canton |
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| RaeLana show the stitching between the Canton, the body, and the edging.
You can see the silk has torn along some of the seam. |
Some of the interesting things she pointed out was an original pencil line used to guide the artist and still visible under close observation. There is also evidence of machine sewing. With her knowledge of fabrics, she is able to understand the construction techniques used over 150 years ago. Look at the careful hand stitching around the Grommet!
From a distance, the flag doesn't look too bad, but if you look more closely you will see the white lines, indicating tears in the silk, the tangled fringe and, of course the cracked and flaking paint in the canton, not to mention the missing silk. Sadly the flag was too delicate to try to flip over to see the other side of the Canton. Previously taken inventory photos show the other side to have a single star with the name "North Carolina Grays" painted on an upper ribbon, and the phrase "Presented by ladies of Cedar Fork" painted on a lower Ribbon.
Even when this photo was taken, in 1984, the damage to the flag is evident.
The roomful of visitors attending the talk had a rare treat in being some of the few contemporary people, other than researchers and museum staff, to actually see this historic relic.
The Cedar Fork Rifles Preservation Society Inc. is currently working in partnership with the museum to raise funds to conserve this flag. It is a monumental task since the estimate is about $14,000! Your donations can help bring this flag out of storage and back on display, which is where the original members of the 6th North Carolina State Troops and the State of North Carolina wanted it to be seen.
visit (by clicking the title below)
for more information about how to donate and help conserve this relic.
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