By Steven Ginsberg
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 9, 2000; Page B01

During Pickett's charge, the futile and final Confederate assault of the Battle of Gettysburg, a bloodied and battered flag from a decimated Virginia infantry group was seized by a private from Minnesota, who claimed the souvenir as a spoil of war.

One hundred and thirty-seven years later, Virginians are mounting another charge, albeit a far more civil one, to get the flag back.

Spurred by the fervor of a reenactors group in Roanoke, a group of senators from southwestern Virginia has put forth a resolution asking Minnesota to return the flag to its southern home.

"It's a matter of state pride," said Sen. John S. Edwards (D-Roanoke), one of the sponsors of the resolution. "Minnesota has refused to return the flag, and they ought to. I don't know why they need it."

Officials in Minnesota say they need the flag for the same reason Virginia wants it: because it is an important reminder of their state's role in the Civil War.

"Is it more important to Virginia than Minnesota? I don't think so," said Ian Stewart, deputy director of the Minnesota Historical Society, which has the flag. "Unless there's a compelling legal reason to return it, we are not inclined to do so."

The Virginia resolution, forwarded Monday to the full Senate by the Rules Committee, requests that Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura and other state officials urge the society to send the flag back to Virginia. The society gets funding from the state.

Ventura, however, is unlikely to go along, said spokesman Paul Moore, because the governor supports the society's stance.

The flag is adorned with the Confederate emblem, and Stewart questioned the involvement of Virginia's Senate, given the controversial nature of the symbol.

"The Confederate flag is a difficult symbol for a lot of Americans, given the current controversy in South Carolina," he said. "Frankly, I'm a bit surprised the Virginia legislature is interested in raising this issue."

Edwards said that the flag is a genuine war artifact, not a symbol of oppression, and that he has no qualms about trying to get it back. "It's just a matter of a relic of an ancient battle," he said.

The Senate bill isn't the first attempt by Virginians to recapture the flag. In 1960, before the Civil War centennial, the Virginia Historical Society asked for the flag, but the Minnesota Historical Society denied the request. The cause was rekindled in 1998, prior to the 135th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, by the 28th Virginia Infantry Regiment, a reenactment group in Roanoke made up largely of ancestors of the original division.

"This is a major affront to us," said Chris Caveness, executive director of the 28th Virginia Infantry Regiment.

The flag and the private who grabbed it, Marshall Sherman, were two lucky survivors of the bloody clash between the soldiers from Virginia and Minnesota; casualties were in the 80 percent range for the North and about 90 percent for the South.

Sherman received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions during the fight and gave the flag to the War Department, but it is believed that the government loaned it to him for a 40th anniversary celebration of the bloody battle in 1903 and that he never returned it.

Caveness said the flag should have been returned to Virginia in accordance with a 1905 order from the War Department and President Theodore Roosevelt directing all such relics to be returned to their states of origin. Caveness's group cited that order in 1998 when it first requested the flag be returned.

But then-Minnesota Attorney General Hubert Humphrey III determined that the directive applied only to relics in the War Department's possession.

John R. Sellers, a historical specialist at the Library of Congress, said there is merit to Minnesota's position, noting that the 1905 order was an executive initiative, not a law, so it covered only artifacts in the hands of the War Department and does not have to be honored by subsequent administrations. Sellers added that there is no set protocol in these types of matters but that most such relics are returned to their place of origin.

"It's too much for us to swallow," Caveness said, adding that he didn't know what his group's next step would be if the Senate resolution does not move Minnesota to return the flag. "I'm hoping we can come together as Americans."