Archivist & Artist Are Familiar With Treasury Guard Flag
By Kathryn Jorgensen

HARTFORD, Conn. - Two people connected with the Treasury Guard national flag discovered in Hartford are military archivist Kelly Nolin, who was Acting Head Librarian for The Connecticut Historical Society at the time she found the flag, and Connecticut military artist and collector Don Troiani.

He owns many belongings of Edgar S. Yergason, the man who owned the flag and whose son gave it to the society. Troiani attended the unveiling press conference and compliments the society. "They did a beautiful job conserving it," he says. "It is very impressive, a beautiful flag."

Troiani says the blue canton is in beautiful condition and a "great piece of folk art by itself. The guys who painted the flags are extremely underrated. Many of them were very fine artists of the day." He says "it takes a lot of skill to paint on fabric like that, especially with oil paint."

Troiani says that contrary to what is shown in movies, when armies were on the march they usually carried their flags in cases. Flags were unfurled when troops went through towns, for ceremonies, or going into battle. Flags were expensive and didn't last long, which is why some regiments had several sets of flags during the war, he explains.

Nolin, now the military archivist for the Vermont Military Records Project, spent five years at the Connecticut Historical Society following several years working with Civil War manuscript materials. Her knowledge of Civil War helped when she found the box containing the Treasury Guard flag.

The flag was cataloged in the collection, but it was only when Nolin was preparing a Civil War presentation that it surfaced and was recognized as significant. She found it in a glasstop case on a shelf in textile storage "under the most advantageous conditions you could ask for."

The Connecticut Historical Society has a quarter of a million artifacts including a Civil War collection with Andersonville artifacts and a Lincoln chair.

Historical societies constantly evaluate their collections, she explains. It takes a while to reevaluate and to reassess, and trends change, so that what is of interest to one generation is not so interesting to another. With a collection as large as that in Connecticut that's a lot of artifacts to review.

Nolin says it takes a lot of effort to research and verify the provenance of an artifact. Washington slept everywhere if one were to believe all such claims and every society has artifacts with stories handed down but hard to prove.
She praises the society for its handling of the flag. "I think it was very gracious of The Connecticut Historical Society to restore that flag and then to present it to the nation," she says.

The three years spent to research and restore the flag is not a long time and it's not as easily done as a novice might think. As an example of how detailed the research was, Nolin says that the eye of the eagle on the canton was identified by one flag expert as coming from Horstmann's in Philadelphia.

"They [historical society] were very careful. They did not go in front of people and say here's what we think we have." As a result, the flag is fully documented and caused a lot of excitement when it went on display.

Troiani never had a chance to own the flag which was donated to the society in 1922 by Yergason's son. But about 25 years ago he was called by an antique dealer when the estate was being cleaned out. And what an estate it was, for Yergason, who started out in dry goods, became an interior decorator. Troiani says he was considered one of the great decorators of his time and the Taft White House was one of his clients.

At the time Troiani saw the estate it included White House china, an inkwell used to sign the Emancipation Proclamation, as well as Civil War artifacts and souvenirs which Yergason collected.

Troiani bought what he says is "probably the most complete Union solder's outfit that I'm aware of." It includes Yergason's frock coat, sack coat, vest, shirt, trousers with suspenders, shoes, overcoat, blanket, knapsack, a Confed-erate Enfield, tin cup, eating utensils, tea, coffee, haversack, housewife, Bible, pencils, pens and more than 100 letters, plus photos. One of them is the accompanying photograph in which Yergason wears the uniform Troiani owns.
When the estate was broken up some things were lost, including the book which identified and described Yergason's relics such as the piece of an Appomattox surrender flag and a piece of fence with a bullet. His diaries are in the Connecticut Historical Society and Troiani owns Yergason's war letters.

Unfortunately, they're not very exciting. "If you're interested in camp life and the boredom of not doing anything, these are it," he said. It turns out Private Yergason and the 22nd Connecticut did little. He served for nine months, never engaged in combat, and actually gained 30 pounds while defending Washington thanks to a nearby bakery.