Mississippi SCV Raising Funds For Flag Restoration
By Ed Ballam December '01 issue

JACKSON, Miss. - The battle flag of the 15th Mississippi was lost to the enemy nearly 140 years ago and, today, the descendants of those who fought under it are trying to save it from an even more dangerous enemy - deterioration.

Members of the Mississippi Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans are trying to raise some $9,200 to conserve the flag and ensure that it will be around for the next 140 years or longer.

"It's sort of our thing," said Ron Stowers, chairperson of the SCV's Save The Battle Flags Committee. "Over the past three years, we've saved three flags."

The 15th Mississippi flag is the most expensive thus far, with the previous restorations costing from $3,000 to about $4,000.

"It doesn't look in that bad condition, but it's getting more and more expensive to conserve these flags each time we do one," Stowers said. "This one is not full of holes or faded real bad."

The Mississippi SCV members each year try to raise money to conserve flags. State preservationists suggest which flags need conserving, and the SCV has a say in which flags they wish to have conserved as well, Stowers said.

The 15th Mississippi was captured by the 2nd Minnesota Volunteers at the Battle of Logan's Cross Roads in Kentucky on Jan. 19, 1862. The flag was later returned to Mississippi where it has sat in storage, along with 60 other Civil War flags, according to Stowers, who is also chief of staff of Jefferson Davis Camp #635. Its flag is not typical of most battle flags, Stowers said, noting that it has a Stars and Bars look.

The drive to save the battleflags was started by Stowers's camp and later became a statewide SCV project.

"There is only so much money we can raise on a local level," Stowers said, noting that from kids to business leaders and owners have contributed to the effort to save the flags. After an SCV talk about the flags and their condition, a youngster handed an SCV officer 50 cents for the project.

"It was kind of a touching moment," Stowers said. "He said that was all the money he had, and he knew it wasn't much, but he said he wanted to help."

So far, the SCV has raised about $3,500 to conserve the 15th's flag. Stowers said the price tag for its conservation is steep, so it will take the members a couple of years to raise the funds.

The way the flag project has worked in the past, the SCV members raise the money and then give it to the state which hires someone to do the conservation.

The Mississippi SCV gives a decorated mug to anyone who contributes at least $25 to the flag fund. They now have a set of four coffee mugs, each depicting the flag to be conserved.

"The mugs cost about $9 each, so we like people to make donations that help us cover the cost and make a little bit too," Stowers said. "If someone started with us at the beginning, they'd have a nice set of mugs by now."

"It has been a real labor of love for me and for all of us," Stowers said. "It's a real grassroots effort."

"Some day, we'd like to take care of all of them and put them on display," he said. "The main thing right now is to try to conserve as many as we can before there's nothing left to conserve."

It is a dream that some day the flags will all be displayed at Beauvoir, the final home of Jefferson Davis. Even if the state doesn't want the flags to remain at Beauvoir indefinitely, Stowers hopes that the SCV will at least be able to temporarily display the flags as each is conserved.

More information and a photo of the flag and the mug is available on the Internet at www.mississippiscv.org/15th_ms.htm.

Donations to the project may be made payable to the Jefferson Davis Camp #635, SCV, and sent to Save The Bat-tle Flags Committee, in case of Ron Stowers, P.O. Box 16945, Jackson, MS 39236. Include return street address for UPS delivery of the mug.