It’s one of those “history mysteries.” That’s what Brent Peterson says about his hunt for a flag from the Civil War.
Peterson is executive director of the Washington County Historical Society. You’re right to be p
uzzled — our state has no Washington County.
The 47-year-old Peterson lives in Stillwater, Minn. There, the Washington County Historical Society has published the book, “In Their Own Words: The Civil War As Seen by Washington County Soldiers.”
The book, coinciding with the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Bull Run — the first major Civil War battle — is based on diaries and letters of men who went to war.
Word of Peterson’s search for the flag of Company C, 8th Minnesota Regiment, a group of 94 Stillwater area men who fought for the Union cause, landed on my desk after the historian posted details of his quest on the Snohomish County History section of our county’s website.
Peterson wondered: “Could the flag be in Everett, Washington?”
Peterson thinks the odds are good that the flag, handmade by Minnesota women, found its way to Everett.
His query was forwarded by an information technology worker to Wendy Becker, Snohomish County’s economic and cultural development officer. Becker sent the message to The Herald, with the note: “Here’s an interesting story request from Minnesota.” It is interesting, as Peterson explained in his message linking an Everett family to the Civil War.
Before the men of Company C, 8th Minnesota Regiment, went off to fight, Peterson wrote, the “ladies of Baytown and Oak Park” made the company a flag. “It was made of silk and cost over $70 — a great deal of money for that time,” Peterson said.
Researching war records, articles and letters, he learned that seven men did not return after fighting Confederates in Tennessee and North Carolina, and American Indians in southern Minnesota.
“The flag was a symbol for those who returned,” Peterson said last week. He discovered that a “Last Two Men’s Club” was formed from the company. The group met in Stillwater’s Keystone House Hotel.
“Among the honored items at each meeting was a bottle of wine, to be drunk by the last two men, and the battle flag of the company,” Peterson wrote. Years went by. The last two were John Blake and Horace Voligny. Peterson found documentation that they “drank a toast from the bottle of wine beneath the battle flag in 1927.”
Blake died in 1928. And the flag apparently went to the last survivor — Horace Voligny, who died in 1931 in Minnesota. “The flag supposedly went on to one of his three sons,” Peterson wrote. “Two of these sons were living in Everett, Washington — George and Oscar Voligny.”
Peterson said the family of the son who stayed in Minnesota doesn’t know where the flag is. Peterson has never seen a picture of it. He doesn’t know its color or design, or whether it was a version of the American flag.
What he does know is that an obituary of an ancestor of George Voligny was published in The Herald on Jan. 20, 2005.
On Friday, I found the obituary for Mary Gail (Voligny) Monahan, who died Jan. 13, 2005 at age 89. She was born in Everett on Dec. 28, 1915, to George and Theresa Voligny. She attended Our Lady of Perpetual Help School and was a member of Everett’s St. Mary Magdalen Church. She was survived by her daughter, Ann Howard, her grandson James Monahan, and a daughter-in-law, Diane Cousineau.
According to the obituary, “Mary was devoted to her family and friends” and would be remembered for her “strength of character” and her “unfailing grace.”
Peterson said he located an Ann Howard in Snohomish County, but not the one he hoped to find.
During the Civil War, he said, flags of the United States were more than flags.
“On the battlefield, the flags were a signal on what to do, and where to head while ducking musket and cannon fire,” Peterson said. “Civil War flags are truly an important part of history.”
In this age of the Internet search, it’s not that hard to find people. Much harder is finding a precious object, possibly passed from one generation to the next. Does someone in Everett have that silk symbol of Company C, 8th Minnesota Regiment? Was it discarded long ago?
Peterson asks that anyone with information about the flag contact: Washington County Historical Society, P.O. Box 167, Stillwater, Minn., 55082, or at www.wchsmn.org.
And I ask this: If you have that flag, please call me before sending it off to Minnesota.
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
