Lansing Torch Club
Save the Flags was honored to be the featured speaker at the September meeting of the Lansing Torch Club at Coral Gables restaurant in East Lansing. The talk was delivered on September 17, 2025, and commemorated the 163rd anniversary of the bloody September 17, 1862, Civil War battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg) Maryland. On that day over 23,000 American soldiers became casualties, marking it as the single bloodiest day in American history. Included in the presentation was information about Lt. Jack Whitman, a Lansing soldier who was mortally wounded at Antietam leading his men in the northern portion of the Miller cornfield. Lt. Whitman was returned to Lansing and is buried at Mt. Hope Cemetery. Save the Flags would like to thank the members of the Torch Club for their kind invitation.
Michigan Civil War Association Book Launch
Save the Flags was honored to attend a book launch event sponsored by the Michigan Civil War Association, the Jackson County, Michigan Historical Society, and the Ella Sharp Museum on September 10th, 2025. The event featured Editor and Author--Mr. Jack Dempsey-- and his presentation on the newest book of the MCWA, Radical of Radicals, a recently released collection of the pre-war and wartime speeches and letters of Michigan Civil War Governor Austin Blair.
The MCWA has published a number of books on Michigan during the Civil War, all book profits go towards the MCWA goal of erecting a monument to Michigan at the Antietam National Battlefield in Sharpsburg, Maryland.
Battle Flag Staffs Photo & Cataloging Project
This fall, the Save the Flags and Capitol Collections teams will be launching a collaborative effort to catalog, photograph, and make publicly accessible the collection of Michigan Civil War, Spanish-American War, and World War I battle flag staffs. This collection of 200+ wood staffs, which accompany the flags in storage at the Michigan History Museum, each feature unique finials, brass plaques, and metal collars. Once the project is complete, the staffs will be viewable alongside their respective flags at MSCBattleFlags.org.
