Cloth Fragment

Object Name:

Cloth Fragment

Object ID:

1956.123

Date:

1775-1777

Description:

Battle Flag Fragment. Fragment of Brig. Gen. John Stark's flag, Battle of Bennington, 1777. Rectangular piece of olive green ribbed plain-weave silk with four raw edges, adhered to piece of white paper, which in turn is adhered to blue card. Ink inscription on card, above fragment: "BATTLE OF BENNINGTON / FLAG OF GEN. JOHN STARK"; below fragment: "PRESENTED 1940 TO HOWARD P. MOORE / BY MRS. JOHN L. OSBORNE OF MANCHESTER, N.H. / GREAT-GRANDDAUGHTER OF GEN. STARK, BORN 1858". In gilded oak frame; glazed; ink inscription on backing paper: "Mrs. Jennie L. Osborne residing for / many years 278 Ash st. Manchester, N.H. / 82 years old, 1940, widow (only child an ad / opted daughter Anabel) inherited a great / many of the mementos of her great grand / father MAJOR GENERAL JOHN STARK / Born 1728, Died 1822 / [Be]cause of my compiling the Stark genealogy / [and] preparing a life of Gen. Stark, Mrs. Osborne / [has] given me a knee buckle (silver) of Gen. Stark / [an]d a tiny fragment of the (probably only) FLAG / carried by the colonial Troops in the BATTLE / of Bennington. August 16th 1777. It is some / times called the "green mountain flag" the bulk / of it being preserved, hermetically sealed, in the Bennington museum at old Bennington, Vt. / The float was a sea green. Gen. Stark cher / ished it to the end of his days. It was carried by / his victorious troops in a fight which made pos / sible the Battle of Saratoga and Burgoyne's surrender, / held to have been one of the decisive battles of the WORLD. / Howard P. Moore / June 2, 1940 - White Plains N.Y. / (under this paper is Mrs. Osborne's letter)".

Material:

Textile
Silk

Dimensions:

H-1.1 W-2.7 inches

Provenance:

Among the prized possessions given by Gen. John Stark to his grand-daughter Susan (Stark) Gamble (1797-1860) before his death. She left them to her daughters, Eleanor Gamble (1830-1910) and Susan G. Abbott (1834-1910). They bequeathed the objects to Susan G. Abbott's daughter, Jennie L. Osborne (1858-1941), who gave them to author Howard P. Moore (1868-1954) in 1940. After Moore's death his daughter, Dorothy L. Lewis (1896-1978) donated them to the Society. See 2001.500, another piece of the flag.

Credit Line:

Gift of Dorothy Moore Lewis

People:

Stark, John (1728-1822), Gamble, Susan (1797-1860), Gamble, Eleanor (1830-1910), Abbott, Susan G. (1834-1910), Osborne, Jennie A. (1858-1941), Moore, Howard P. (1868-1954), Lewis, Dorothy L. (1896-1978)

Subjects:

Flags, Banners, Textiles, Silk, Textile fragments, Revolutionary War, Revolutions, Paper