Review - "Tar Heel Civil War Flags: The Collection of the North Carolina Museum of History" by Tom Belton

[Tar Heel Civil War Flags: The Collection of the North Carolina Museum of History by Tom Belton (McFarland, 2026). Softcover, photos, illustrations, footnotes, appendix, bibliography, index. Pages main/total:xv,397/431. ISBN:978-1-4766-9649-2. $49.95]

More than a quarter-century ago now, back in 1999, the North Carolina Museum of History ran a public exhibition titled North Carolina and the Civil War, which featured more than 350 items from the museum's collection, including some of its Civil War-period flag holdings. Due to the delicate nature of so many of the flags curated by the museum, most of which remain in storage today due to a hefty conservation backlog, exhibition visitors were only able to view a fraction of the total. However, interested persons can now inspect the entire collection secondhand through a newly published reference guide. In his book Tar Heel Civil War Flags: The Collection of the North Carolina Museum of History, author Tom Belton, a retired military history curator with over three decades of work at the museum, brings to light for the first time each of the 112 mostly Confederate flags in the collection.

The volume is organized into large sections designated by flag type, which include state, company, First National, Second National, regimental battle flags, U.S. flags, and post-Civil War flags and banners. Introductory discussion of each type, much of that information familiar to seasoned Civil War readers, is duly provided. Examples of United States flags are prewar stars and stripes, wartime garrison flags (such as the one captured at Plymouth in 1864), and those flown by North Carolina Unionists. The collection's postwar flags and banners are those created for the state's United Confederate Veterans and United Daughters of the Confederacy camps, chapters, and divisions. Battle flags and unit company flags are by far the most numerous flag categories held by the museum.

Each flag feature begins with some brief background information about the unit or organization the flag is connected with (and, where appropriate, brief notes on battlefield use). Description of each flag's current appearance (which ranges from tattered, barely recognizable remains that even experts struggle to recognize to items that are remarkably well preserved) as well as its pattern, bunting issue, and material composition is provided. Quoted passages from official reports, regimental histories, newspaper articles, and other sources offer additional information in regard to flag description and where or when it was captured (or surrendered during the Appomattox Campaign). When known, the origins and maker of the flag (with documentation) is provided as are transcriptions of speeches from flag presentation ceremonies. In some cases, flag identification itself is murky, and the author weighs the strengths and weaknesses of differing claims. For the battle flags, information about the color bearers known to have carried the flag is included. Chain of custody is another major part of the discussion, so the text, as mentioned above, includes an account of the flag's capture or surrender (if available) while also tracing postwar provenance. All of the above is annotated through footnotes.

Each flag's current state of preservation is noted as are conservation cost estimates for those that remain stored away. According to Belton, the average conservation cost estimate is around $10,000, but many billing ranges are much, much higher. For example, the company flag of the Perquimans Rangers (its regimental attachment still unknown) is given as nearly $35,000, making it the collection's most expensive proposed conservation project. Unconserved flags cannot be displayed, and it appears that much of that process is dependent upon outside fundraising campaigns, so information about how to donate is provided.

The volume is profusely illustrated. Featured are color photographs showing both sides of the flag and banner items under consideration. These are supported by numerous other images, including B&W photos of relevant documentation (such as original flag purchase invoices) and extensively captioned portraits of individuals with some degree of connection—either close, tangential, or (as in the case of a rare bible bookmark flag) purely conjectural in nature—to the item or flag. Photographs from flag presentation ceremonies of various types are also commonly featured illustrations.

In its thorough documentation of North Carolina Civil War flags, which are critical items of material culture related to the conflict, Tom Belton's Tar Heel Civil War Flags is a profoundly useful source and reference guide for casual readers, professional historians, and museum specialists alike.