The Rewards of Tenacity: A New Clue to an Old Mystery

The so-called "Gettysburg Flag" in the Lora McMahon King Heritage Room at Union Adventist University has been a part of my life for over twenty years. When I arrived in Lincoln, Nebraska, in the summer of 2003 to take the positions of library director and college archivist, this treasured possession was one of the first items library staff brought to my attention. The flag was a gift to the college in 1985 from Muriel Fleming O'Connor (1913-1996), an alumnus (class of 1934) whose father had been born in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. When library staff told me that the flag hung from the podium when Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, I thought: Yeah, sure. I'll get to it eventually. Other tasks took priority, so it was several years later when another alumnus began agitating that Union display the flag that I finally started to take researching the flag's provenance seriously. That is when the quest began.

The flag that belonged to the Fleming Family of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Because the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg was well documented, and photographs from the Civil War were readily available, that is where I began. It turns out that there are very few photographs from the dedication ceremony, and none of them were able to provide the detail or resolution to shed any light on the story. A later visit to the research center at the Gettysburg National Military Park revealed that Lincoln did not stand at a podium (therefore the flag could not have hung from it) and that the platform had been draped in black crepe rather than red, white, a blue bunting—a more funereal than patriotic vibe.

Another early step I took was to reach out to a few experts on Civil War Gettysburg. They told me I was wasting my time. The story was impossible to prove or disprove. It was probably just one more myth related to Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. One part of me agreed. The other part was challenged to see what I could learn. And of course when you work at small college, you want to keep alumni happy.

In those days, it was still difficult to find newspapers archived and searchable online. It is so frustrating to me now to realize that the research that took months of perusing microfilm reels and a trip to research facilities in Gettysburg (fortunately it piggybacked with another work-related trip) as well as the Nebraska Historical Society (at least that was just across town), can now be done in the course of an afternoon with Newspapers.com.

As I dug into the Fleming (frequently spelled Flemming) family history, what emerged was an interesting case study about memory and family myth-making. I learned that Muriel's great-grandfather, Andrew W. Flemming (1811-1889), was a disabled veteran of the Seminole Wars, at least a part-time auctioneer, and likely voted Democrat in Gettysburg. On the whole the people of Gettsyburg and the surrounding Adams County were rather lukewarm when it came to supporting Abraham Lincoln. In 1863, the Flemmings might not have been that excited about association with Lincoln. However, Andrew's son, Solomon, moved to Clinton, Illinois, as a young man in the early 1870s where he rubbed shoulders with people who had known Lincoln. Solomon's son Ray homesteaded in Nebraska, a Republican stronghold. Suddenly this family had reasons to take pride in a family heirloom which Lincoln had seen. Had they manufactured a lie? The field of memory studies suggests not. Error can unintentionally enter our stories as we shape them for particular audiences. Each retelling is based on our memory of the previous recounting rather than the original event. We may also imperfectly remember what our parents or grandparents told us and fill in the blanks with what we think we remember.

Another angle of research emerged as the investigation moved into the twentieth century. Ray Fleming (then living in Sargent, Nebraska), his sister Dora, and his daughter Muriel each had opportunities to share their flag with the communities in which they lived. I hoped that comparing their accounts would lead to a better understanding of the truth. Muriel's version of the story was found first because it was she who gifted the flag to Union College in 1985 (at which time she claimed Great-Grandpa Andrew was a War of 1812 veteran and master of ceremonies at the cemetery dedication on November 19, 1863). She and her mother also shared the story with the Denver Post ("Denver Woman Owns Flag Lincoln Saw at Gettysburg," February 14, 1963. In this version the flag hung over the platform from which Lincoln spoke and Andrew introduced Lincoln before he spoke. In fact, U.S. Marshal Ward Hill Lamon had this privilege.) I then discovered an article in the Sargent Leader ("Ray Fleming Has Old American Flag," March 17, 1938), that indicated the flag had been displayed in Des Moines, Iowa, while in the possession of Ray's sister Dora. Otherwise the details did not vary much from the Denver Post article.

The Sargent Leader article was published when the flag was returned to Ray. Had an article appeared in a Des Moines newspaper? If so, would it share details closer to the truth, since Ray's and Muriel's stories had been debunked? My gut said yes to the first question, but at the time it was an impossible search. Des Moines newspapers were not indexed, much less searchable online yet. Another massive microfilm browsing project in the face of other priorities was not going to happen. I contented myself that we would never know the rest of the story. I managed to make several presentations and publish one article in Cord Magazine about the flag, focusing on the Fleming family story that had been uncovered and speculating about how their changing situations may have shaped the family narrative. Yet, I held out hope that someday I might find the imagined Des Moines article.

After letting this research sit for more than ten years, on a whim a couple of weeks ago, I decided to see if anything new turned up in a Flemming/Fleming genealogy search. I was chagrinned to see how quickly all of the Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and Sargent, Nebraska, newspaper articles popped up. Then as I clicked through Ancestry.com hints, I happened upon Ray's sister Dora. There it was! "Gettysburg Flag is Now in a Des Moines Home" (The Des Moines Register, May 30, 1930, available through Newspapers.com). The headline, published on page one, above the fold, was accompanied by a photograph if Miss Dora Fleming holding the flag. I eagerly began reading the article, and then burst into laughter.

Whereas, Ray and Muriel had focused on Andrew W. Flemming's alleged role in the cemetery dedication, Dora focused on the antics of her own father, Solomon, a 10-year-old boy at the time (Muriel claimed her grandfather was 12). It seems that Solomon and two of his friends, caught up in the excitement of the moment, pooled their coins to buy a flag. Andrew helped the boys rig a line across a main street in town from which to hang the flag. However the story falls apart when Dora, or perhaps the journalist who wrote the story for the newspaper, then claimed that Lincoln arrived in a carriage, stopped under the flag, and delivered the Gettysburg Address. The facts? When Lincoln arrived in Gettysburg on the evening of November 18, he walked to the Wills' house where he stayed. He stepped out of the house once or twice during the evening to make impromtu remarks to musicians who serenaded him. Early on the morning of the 19th, he did ride in a carriage to tour Seminary Ridge, but later in the morning, in the funeral-like procession that promenaded the half mile from downtown Gettysburg out to the cemetery, Lincoln road a horse that was notably too small for his lanky frame.

Despite the obvious fabrications, Dora's story is the most plausible of them all. Although she claimed the flag was made of wool, it is actually made of cheap cotton or linen on which the flag design was stamped or screen printed. Consultation with an Americana specialists determined that this flag was a parade flag, albeit an unusually large one. A parade flag is disposable, intended for one time use, and then done. This flag lacks grommets and a reinforced edge that would allow it to fly indefinitely in the wind. With its thirty-four stars, it was also already obsolete in November 1863. West Virginia had become the thirty-fifth state on July 4, 1863. It makes sense that the young boys with a limited amount of money could have bought a flag no one else wanted at a discount.

The remaining question is why siblings Ray and Dora had such different recollections of the flag's history. That is a secret they have taken to their graves. Meanwhile, I have the satisfaction of finally feeling that we have learned everything that can be learned about this artifact.