Historic Confederate Flag Purchased by North Carolina Museum of History

The regimental flag that belonged to the regiment whose soldiers accidentally shot and mortally wounded General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was recently purchased by the North Carloina Museum of History. North Carolina's News and Observer reported:

"A woolen flag with cotton stars flew the night Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson caught a bullet in the arm -- a quiet witness to one of history's great accidents."

"You can see it inside a case on the third floor of the N.C. Museum of History, hanging over a Confederate ammunition chest recovered from a Johnston County farm: the flag carried by the regiment that inadvertently shot the man who was arguably the South's No. 2 general."

"The museum just bought the flag for a price Curator of Military History Tom Belton would describe only as a bargain."

"Any price would be puny for such a find, he said, calling the flag one of the greatest acquisitions in his 30-year career. No matter what you feel for the rebel soldiers who carried it -- pride, disdain, boredom -- the flag can light the imagination."

""It's the flag that was flying over the regiment that mortally wounded Stonewall Jackson," said Tom Walsh, the New Jersey professor who sold it. "It opens up all sorts of what-ifs.""

Full article.