No matter how you feel about General "Beast" Butler you have to acknowledge the importance of this Stars and Stripes 34-star Army of the James headquarters flag. It certainly "saw the elephant". Where Butler went, so did this flag.

Robert E. Lee feared the day the Union army would return up the James River and invest the Confederate capital of Richmond. In the spring of 1864, Ulysses Grant, looking for a way to weaken Lee, was about to exploit the Confederate commander’s greatest fear and weakness. After two years of futile offensives in Virginia, the Union commander set the stage for a campaign that could decide the war. Grant sent General Benjamin Butler with his 39,000-man Army of The James to Bermuda Hundred, to threaten and possibly take Richmond, or at least pin down troops that could reinforce Lee. 
In the hot weeks of May 1864, Butler and General P.G.T. Beauregard fought the series of skirmishes and battles listed below:

• May 6–7, 1864 – Battle of Port Walthall Junction
• May 9, 1864 – Battle of Swift Creek
• May 10, 1864 – Battle of Chester Station
• May 12–16, 1864 – Battle of Proctor’s Creek (also known as the Second Battle of Drewry’s Bluff and the Battle of Fort Darling)
• May 20, 1864 – Battle of Ware Bottom Church

The outcome of Bermuda Hundred Campaign was nearly a complete failure. Butler’s cavalry inflicted some minor damage to railways and other infrastructure in the area. Still, Butler’s indecision and a lack of cooperation between Butler, Smith, and Gillmore prevented the Army of the James from threatening the Confederate capital as initially envisioned. Had the Union leaders focused on Richmond or Petersburg, instead of vacillating between the two, they likely could have seized either. Instead, the Yankees threatened neither, despite their vast numerical advantage.

The flag being offered was formerly in Mr. Ritchie's world-renowned Texas Civil War Museum. It was presented to Mr. Ritchie by an ancestor of an officer on General Butler's staff. A tag attached to the flag reads: "GEN. BEN BUTLER'S HEADQUARTERS FLAG AT BERMUDA HUNDRED. GIFT MRS.E.E. CLARK. CIVIL WAR. 34 STARS." The entire wool bunting flag is handsewn. It bears 34 2- and 3/4-inch cotton stars on both sides of the blue canton. The hoist of the flag is made of cotton Osnaburg and has 3 whipped eyes like a battle flag designed to be tied a pole. The height on the hoist is 44 inches and the length of the flag is now 90 inches with probably only about 2 inches of the original length lost from fraying. Remarkably we have found a May 1864 photograph of the Army of the James headquarters and the flag draping and attached to regimental style pole in the picture with its proportions and star pattern certainly suggest that this is the exact flag we are offering! Flag is sound and the colors are excellent. This is a very significant collector's item. Historic and originally purchased from the Horse Soldier by the consignor.  [pe] [ph:L]

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