CIVIL WAR ERA: 13-STAR NAVAL ENSIGN, 4-5-4 PATTERN.

CIVIL WAR ERA: 13-STAR NAVAL ENSIGN, 4-5-4 PATTERN.
[USA: 1862-72.]
A Civil War era 13-Star Naval flag, 1370 x 1700 mm, hand-sewn in lightweight wool, with 13 white cotton stars sewn on the upper blue canton in 4-5-4 pattern, applied to one face only, linen hoist with short halyards attached, strengthening panels at upper and lower hoist. The fly edge repaired in slightly mismatching material in the late 19th century, a few tears at fly, other small moth holes.
Provenance: Robert Newson. 1780-1879, with a card formerly attached to the flag, with an ownership pencil note by a Mr L. Newson of Kittery Maine, also describing this flag as similar to the flag on the USS Ranger, "a (Captain) Paul Jones ship."

A Rare Small Boat Naval flag, adopted by the US Navy around 1862, during the Civil War. Although the correct number of stars would have been 35 at this time, the navy choose the simpler 13 star in 4-5-4 form, so that they would not have to change the flag every time a new state was added. Very few are seen on the market, and most seem to be hand sewn, like this, using thin wool, which given the force of wind out at sea would have destroyed them quite quickly, and hence their rarity. Perhaps the efforts of uniform making swallowed up the wool available for flag making. The Zaricor Flag collection has a similar flag, but theirs saw action in the amphibious landings at Fort Fisher, Wilmington, North Carolina in December 1864, and has considerable damage.