It's in the history museum, next to the state Capitol whose battlefield paintings and soldier statuary make it appear a Civil War shrine. Cut, dyed and sewn together a different way, it might have made a baby's blanket or a lady's dress for a wintry day. Unfurling in a breeze, it was borne that day into battle by farmers and lawyers from Roanoke, Botetourt, Bedford, Craig and Montgomery counties as they made a suicidal assault across a mile-wide field in what history books would later call Pickett's Charge. No bullets and cannonballs fly today, no men dying terrible deaths.
Most people know the Civil War has ended.
But not the war for this flag. For more than a hundred years, the regimental banner of the 28th Virginia Infantry has been in the keeping of the Minnesota Historical Society. Kept hostage, say Roanoke insurance man Chris Caveness and his band of Confederate re-enactors, who for the past two years have clamored for it from within quiet offices and marbled assembly rooms. They've enlisted black supporters, despite the flag's slavery-stained symbolism. They've sent letters, angry e-mails and legislative resolutions demanding its return.