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By The Associated Press
DENVER, Pa. (AP) — A flag that was carried into battle by a Black Union regiment during the Civil War and hand-painted by an acclaimed African American artist will join one of the country’s most comprehensive Civil War collections.
The Atlanta History Center bought the flag at auction Thursday for $196,800, making it the largest purchase the center has paid for an artifact.
Morphy Auctions was selling off the flag in Pennsylvania.
It depicts a Black soldier waving goodbye to Columbia, the White female personification of America, beneath a banner reading, “We Will Prove Ourselves Men.”
It’s one of 11 painted by David Bustill Bowser, the son of a fugitive slave. It’s the only known surviving flag.
Center President and CEO Sheffield Hale said the flag “doesn’t need words to tell you what it is and what it represents.”
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