I’m in utter shock.

A couple of days ago, I got an email from a gentleman in Connecticut who has a Confederate flag in his collection that might have come from the battle of New Bern. I was pulling the addresses for some web sites when I learned that flag historian Howard Michael Madaus passed on July 21, 2007. That was six months ago. While I had never met Madaus personally, I talked with him quite a bit via email when working on the book on the 37th NCT. I am shocked at the loss and more shocked that it did not receive wider notice. Yes, I do live in a place where the sun rarely shines (not exactly true - I do live on top of the mountains), but I do try and stay on top of things in the Civil War world. Madaus’s book on battle flags in the Army of Tennessee is one of my treasured possessions.

Then, as I was pulling up a second web site, I read that another great flag historian, Devereaux D. Cannon, passed away on December 29. While I have never spoken to Cannon, I do have several of his books. Cannon was webmaster of the Flags of the Confederacy web page. This is undoubtably one of the best pages on the world wide web. For many of the flag questions that I get, I routinely recommend people to check out this web page.

Utter shock.