Flag: Rifle Scouts
Catalogue No. 86.1875.1
No Photograph Available

Provenance Reconstruction:

According to the available documentation, this flag was captured at Selma, Alabama on April 2, 1865 by the 4th Ohio Cavalry. In his report dated May 16, 1865 Brevet Major-General James H. Wilson lists 24 flags captured during the campaign in Alabama and Georgia. Among these are four flags which were captured at Selma. Three of the captured flags were taken by the 4th Iowa Cavalry and one by the staff of Brigadier General Eli Long. All of these flags were to be transmitted to the U.S. War Department. Neither General Long nor Captain William Shoemaker of the 4th Ohio Cavalry mention the capture of a flag by that regiment. The name Rifle Scouts has not been identified as an alternate designation for an Alabama company.

The flag was returned to the State of Alabama by the State of Ohio by authority of Senate Joint Resolution Number 21, March 12, 1909. It was received in a special ceremony at the Elk's Theater in Huntsville on May 12, 1909 where it was presented by Captain John R. Pitts of Cincinnati on behalf of the State of Ohio, Governor Harmon and the 4th Ohio Cavalry Association. It was accepted by Mrs. Charles G. Brown, President of the Alabama Division, United Daughters of the Confederacy representing Governor Comer. The flag was turned over to the Alabama Department of Archives and History on June 9, 1910.

Sources:
       Curator's Object Files, Civil War Flags, Alabama Department of Archives and History.
       U.S. War Department. War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1880-1901.