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An American Civil War artifact was rediscovered at the Hollidaysburg Area Senior High School, and community members are working to restore it.
After 20 years of existing obscurely in a storage closet, a tattered Civil War infantry battle flag from Hollidaysburg was found by Superintendent Bob Gildea last spring.
The school district and the Hollidaysburg Women’s Club are raising money to recase it and prevent further ultraviolet damage.
With the flag, the Women’s Club is also funding a mural naming past and present U.S. Military personnel from Hollidaysburg, said Geny Barthelemes, the club’s chairwoman for public issues.
But Barthelemes said she never thought the mural would include names of soldiers from the Civil War.
In 1861, First Sergeant Jack Mufty received a flag purchased by women in Hollidaysburg and promised to return it to the borough when the war ended.
Gildea found a yellowed, typed letter on the back of the flag’s frame explaining the flag’s history.
President Abraham Lincoln stirred excitement with his call for volunteers to defend the union against efforts of southern states to dissolve it.
“The young women of Hollidaysburg held a fair, and with the proceeds they purchased a flag,” the letter states. “These energetic women also gave a ball in honor of the men who had enlisted.”
Mufty received the flag at the ball, and during the war he permitted no one to carry it, “except his chum Samuel (Spanny) Herr, with whom he had an understanding that Samuel should bring back the flag if he became disabled.”
After each battle, Mufty printed the name of the battle on one of the flag’s stripes.
The letter states: “The flag contains many bullet holes and its end was frayed out by the winds of Virginia. A large rent was made on an occasion when the regiment charged the enemy’s position, and as Mufty and the flag mounted the earthworks, a rebel shell tore through the blue field.”
Mufty enlisted in Company M, 62nd regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers Infantry – a Pittsburgh regiment. Company M was recruited in Blair and adjoining counties.
“This regiment became part of the Army of the Potomac and the men drilled into real soldiers by that great disciplinarian, General George G. McClelland,” the letter states.
Gildea said the flag is worth between $75,000 and $100,000, but it’s a priceless relic that he wants to be “viewed for generations as a hallowed reminder of the sacrifices our Hollidaysburg ancestors were willing to make to ensure the freedom of this great nation.”
The American Legion Post 516 in Hollidaysburg is donating $1,000 to restore it. But the total cost is thousands more, maybe up to $10,000, Barthelemes said.
“It just brings tears to your eyes to think this flag has been through the war. It was quite a piece of history,” said Joe Patterson, American Legion post adjutant.
The officers of Company M were Capt. Richard J. Crozier, wounded at Gaines Mill and retired; 1st Lt. Stephen C. Potts, killed at Fredericksburg; 2nd Lt. John H. Murray, wounded at Gaines Mill, Fredericksburg and Gettysburg, and later promoted to Captain.
Gildea said the Civil War flag of Company M 62nd Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, was proudly displayed for decades, first in the old high school building on Hart Street, and later at the current Senior High School on Montgomery Street.
But during renovations in 1995, the flag was placed in storage and remained there for 20 years until it was rediscovered last spring.
Mirror Staff Writer Russ O’Reilly is at 946-7435.