The flag was donated to the museum by members of the Davis family of Alabama. It had been passed down for 145 years through generations of the family since their great-great-grandfather, 65th Georgia Infantry color bearer Private John Davis, brought it home from the Civil War.
Siblings Don Davis, Pete Davis, both of Alabama, and Rhonda Davis of Tennessee, donated the flag to the museum in downtown Kennesaw because they thought it was appropriate to share it.
Through a telegram and soldiers letters, Gregg Biggs, a Tennessee historian of Civil War flags, pinpointed the flag’s birth to Augusta in January 1864.
Interestingly, although the Confederacy lost the war, the flag was not surrendered.
John Davis carried it rolled up and tucked into his boot to save it from capture or destruction, according to historians.
The flag had been carried by its unit throughout the Atlanta campaign, traveling with the Confederacy’s principal army in the western theater, the Army of Tennessee, after the fall of Atlanta to the Union. The 65th Georgia regiment, which was part of the Army of Tennessee, would have been composed of about 1,000 soldiers.
It was also carried on November 30, 1864, at the Battle of Franklin in Tennessee, an engagement in which one-quarter of the 27,000-man army was killed or wounded in three hours, including six generals.
John Davis was the final color bearer for the flag at the Battle of Franklin. But the blood stains are believed by historians to have come from its first color bearer, William Martin. When Martin was killed at Franklin, the regiment’s commander, Capt. William G. Foster, picked up the banner and was quickly wounded. That’s when Davis is said to have taken it up.
To carry such a flag in war was a unique honor, said Dr. Keith Bohannon, a University of West Georgia associate professor of history.
Siblings Don Davis, Pete Davis, both of Alabama, and Rhonda Davis of Tennessee, donated the flag to the museum in downtown Kennesaw because they thought it was appropriate to share it.
Through a telegram and soldiers letters, Gregg Biggs, a Tennessee historian of Civil War flags, pinpointed the flag’s birth to Augusta in January 1864.
Interestingly, although the Confederacy lost the war, the flag was not surrendered.
John Davis carried it rolled up and tucked into his boot to save it from capture or destruction, according to historians.
The flag had been carried by its unit throughout the Atlanta campaign, traveling with the Confederacy’s principal army in the western theater, the Army of Tennessee, after the fall of Atlanta to the Union. The 65th Georgia regiment, which was part of the Army of Tennessee, would have been composed of about 1,000 soldiers.
It was also carried on November 30, 1864, at the Battle of Franklin in Tennessee, an engagement in which one-quarter of the 27,000-man army was killed or wounded in three hours, including six generals.
John Davis was the final color bearer for the flag at the Battle of Franklin. But the blood stains are believed by historians to have come from its first color bearer, William Martin. When Martin was killed at Franklin, the regiment’s commander, Capt. William G. Foster, picked up the banner and was quickly wounded. That’s when Davis is said to have taken it up.
To carry such a flag in war was a unique honor, said Dr. Keith Bohannon, a University of West Georgia associate professor of history.
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