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History Nebraska, 7135-389-(1)
By David L. Bristow, History Nebraska
As we’ve just celebrated another Veterans Day, here are three flags belonging to the first soldiers to formally represent Nebraska in the U.S. Army.
Nebraska Territory had only about 9,000 men of military age when the Civil War began, but it sent more than 3,000 of them into the Union armies. The First Nebraska Infantry Regiment fought in two major battles in 1862, playing a crucial role at the Battle of Fort Donelson and fighting bravely at Shiloh.
Later, mounted as cavalry, the two Nebraska regiments guarded overland trails in Nebraska’s Platte Valley. Statehood followed two years after the end of the war. ■
Visit History Nebraska’s website at history.nebraska.gov.
![](http://magazine.outdoornebraska.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/8611-4-SFN24272-flag_2.jpg)
![](http://magazine.outdoornebraska.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/2046.jpg)
Mrs. O. F. Johnson sewed the company’s flag. It was said she had the only sewing machine in town. Many years later, the flag came to History Nebraska in fragile condition. Its blue field is all but gone, and at some point, its remaining 26 stars were mounted to a new backing — and not very neatly.
Mrs. Johnson’s stripes are a bit uneven, but we assume she placed her 34 stars with more care. The U.S. had 34 states after Kansas joined the Union in January 1861. During the war years, new U.S. flags added stars for Kansas, West Virginia (1863) and Nevada (1864), but did not — as a matter of principle — subtract the 11 seceded states from the Perpetual Union. History Nebraska, 2046
![](http://magazine.outdoornebraska.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/03b-RG2057-40-SFN17138_4.jpg)
History Nebraska, rg2057-40
![](http://magazine.outdoornebraska.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/01-Volunteer-Ad_2.jpg)
The post Nebraska’s Civil War Flags appeared first on Nebraskaland Magazine.