Battle flag carried by black Union troops sells for $200K

DENVER, Pa. – A flag that was carried into battle by a black Union regiment during the Civil War and hand-painted by an acclaimed African American artist will join one of the country’s most comprehensive Civil War collections.

The Atlanta History Center bought the flag at auction Thursday for $196,800, making it the largest purchase the centre has paid for an artifact.

Morphy Auctions was selling off the flag in Pennsylvania.

It depicts a black soldier waving goodbye to Columbia, the white female personification of America, beneath a banner reading, “We Will Prove Ourselves Men.”

It’s one of 11 painted by David Bustill Bowser, the son of a fugitive slave. It’s the only known surviving flag.

Centre President and CEO Sheffield Hale said the flag “doesn’t need words to tell you what it is and what it represents.”