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Subject: [ESTILLKY-L] more on the flags of the Eighth
Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2000 10:52:21 EDT

As is my usual want, I seem to have created some confusion with my Email
about the flags at the History Center.

There are two flags in the possession of the museum. The first was the issued
to the unit in 1862 by the Kentucky state government. This flag was probably
manufactured by the Wilkins company in Louisville and was nearly destroyed
during the battle of Stones River. After the battle, that flag, or what was
left of it, was presented to the KY State Archives for safe keeping in 1863.
The flag received extensive damage during the battle and suffered further
degradation during the ensuing 137 years.

The flag Jess Wilson saw in the bank vault was the flag that was brought back
by Capt. John Wilson and was recently donated to the Kentucky History Center
by a member of the Wilson family. That flag is in better shape than first
flag but probably was manufactured by the Schillato company in Cincinnati and
not by the ladies of Estill County. If the ladies did make a flag as oral
tradition suggests, it probably no longer exists. The flag spent many years
in an Irvine bank vault, I believe the local chapter of the D A R had
possession of it for a period of time. As a follow up to the conversation
Jess Wilson had with park people at Lookout Mountain. I happened to visit
the park on a day when the park was temporarily closed due to a budget fight
in Congress. The only employee there was the Park Superintendent, and after
finding out my connections to Kentucky, told me that after learning of the
existence of the flag ( probably from Jess Wilson), he contacted Billy Lyle
Wilson in Irvine and arranged to bring the flag to the park for the125th
anniversary of the battle. He told me the flag was in such a fragile state
that he never removed it from the case and returned it to Wilson.

Estill County now has three items in the new museum, the famed moonshine
still operated near by Gilbert McIntosh in the fifties, a piece of iron
forged by the Cottage Furnace and an antique plow donated by H T Hardy. It
would be good if the aforementioned flags could be restored and displayed
there also. The costs for repairing both flags could exceed $20,000. That
is a lot of money to raise but not beyond the realm of possibility.

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