Flag: 16th Alabama Infantry
Catalogue No. 86.3937.1
(PN10093, PN10196)
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Provenance Reconstruction:

This flag conforms to the pattern of those issued to the corps of Major General William J. Hardee, Army of the Mississippi/Army of Tennessee. It was issued to the regiment late in 1864 and was captured at the Battle of Franklin on November 30, 1864. Both Pvt. J. H. Ricksecker of Co. D. and Pvt. Abraham Greenwalt of Co. G, 104th Ohio Infantry have at various times been credited with the capture of the flag. Both men were recommended for and received the Congressional Medal of Honor. They were also among nine men who captured flags at Franklin who were selected to personally deliver them to the War Department in Washington. However, only seven flags were registered with the War Department as having been captured at Franklin. These flags were assigned Capture Numbers 240-246. Through a clerical error both Ricksecker and Greenwalt were credited with the capture of the flag of the 16th Alabama Infantry. The flag actually captured by Ricksecker was assigned Capture Number 244 and at some point was inscribed with his name. Ricksecker's flag is now at the Museum of the Confederacy, Richmond, Virginia. The flag of the 16th Alabama Infantry was captured by Pvt. Greenwalt and was assigned Capture Number 242. The flag and its staff were returned to the State of Alabama effective March 25, 1905. The staff, which had been separated from the flag, was located and positively identified in July, 1998.

Sources:
       Curator's Object Files, Civil War Flags, Alabama Department of Archives and History.
       Madaus, Howard Michael. The Battle Flags of the Confederate Army of Tennessee. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1976.
       U. S. War Department. American Decorations 1862-1926. Washington , Government Printing Office, 1927.
       U.S. War Department. War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Government Printing Office, 1880-1901.