Description:

This flag is the regiment’s presentation flag and was given to the regiment in a large celebration at Campus Martius in Detroit on May 11, 1861.  It was captured at the First Battle of Bull Run and spent the majority of the war in Richmond.  After Richmond was captured, the flag was in various governmental buildings in Washington D. C. until the state petitioned for it’s return, and it joined the collection on May 10, 1886.

The flag is constructed of two pieces of blue silk, each painted separately and sewn together. The obverse (front) is charged with a painted red scroll with the motto, “MICHIGAN’S DAUGHTERS TO HER SONS. DEFEND IT.” Below that is a painted rendering of the Michigan coat-of-arms. It features an eagle with outstretched wings clutching in its beak a light blue scroll bearing the national motto in Latin, “E PLURIBUS UNUM” (“Out of Many, One”). The eagle rests atop a shield bearing the Latin motto, “TUEBOR” (“I Will Defend”). The shield features a peninsula, lighthouse, and sailing vessel on the horizon. It is supported on the right by an elk and on the left by a moose, both rampant. Beneath the shield is a light blue scroll painted with the Latin motto, “SI QUAERIS PENINSULAM AMOENAM CIRCUMSPICE” (“If You Seek a Pleasant Peninsula Look About You”). Draped from the scroll is a banner inscribed with the name of the regiment: “1ST. REGT INFTY.”

The reverse (back) features a painted rendering of the federal eagle (33.5” from tip of beak to tip of wing) perched on top of the federal shield and displaying arms (that is, arrows) clasped in the right talon and an olive branch in the left. Upon the shield is a blue painted scroll with the national motto in Latin, “E PLURIBUS UNUM” (“Out of Many, One”). Two painted, crossed, national flags complete with tassels, staff and spear finials appear beneath the eagle and behind the shield.

The red, white, and blue twisted silk cord measures 95” long and the two red, white and blue 2.5” tassels are formed on wooden cores.

In April of 2024 the first flag of the first Michigan regiment to see action during the Civil War was delivered to Textile Preservation Associates in Ranson, West Virginia for extensive conservation. The First Michigan Infantry (Three Months) flag saw service at the First Battle of Bull Run where it was captured by confederate forces and sent to Richmond, Virginia as a trophy of war. At the end of the war, the flag was delivered to Washington D.C. and in 1886 was finally sent home to Michigan. In the 1960’s the flag was sewn between dyed layers of net in a well-intentioned but flawed attempt at conservation.

The flag was actually composed of two pieces of silk with the painted Coat of Arms of Michigan on the obverse and the Federal Coat of arms on the reverse. The gold bullion fringe was carefully removed, the individual 1960’s stitches were snipped and carefully removed using surgeon’s scissors and tweezers. The flag was vacuum cleaned, the pieces were individually humidified and flattened, errant pieces realigned, paint stabilized by a paint conservator and each piece encapsulated in its own Stabiltex netting and placed between layers of mylar. The decision was made to keep the two pieces separated and stored on two separate pallets, for easier access without having to flip the flag.  In February of 2026, the flag was brought home and now resides again in flag storage at the state museum.