(January 2013) Enlarge Minnesota State Capitol Building in downtown St. Paul. These battle flags of Minnesota are displayed in the capitol rotunda

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(January 2013) Enlarge Company I, 1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry - National Flag

In May 1861 the ladies from Lake City and Wabasha, Minnesota purchased this flag and presented it to Company I of the 1st Minnesota Volunteer Regiment. Instead of having stars in the canton of this flag, a Federal eagle is displayed with the words "May God Protect the Right" on the ribbon held in the eagle's beak. This design is unique from other national flags carried by Minnesota regiments in the Civil War

After the original national flag used by the regiment was sent back to St. Paul due to battle damage at First Bull Run, this company flag probably served as the regiment's color until it, too, was retired for display in the state capitol on November 30, 1861

(January 2013) Enlarge 11th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment - National Flag

Organized in 1864, the 11th Minnesota was the last infantry regiment mustered in Minnesota as the Civil War drew to a close. It served on guard, picket, and patrol duty on the Louisville to Nashville rail line. Its mission was to protect the line from guerrilla bands so that troops and supplies for the Union army could pass unimpeded

By the middle of the war, colors were produced by vendors and then distributed to the state or regiment that ordered it by the Quartermaster Department – the distributor of military goods and supplies for the Union armies. The layout of the 35 gold-leafed stars marks this as a flag that would have been issued by the Philadelphia Quartermaster Depot

(January 2013) Enlarge 4th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment - Regimental Flag

Formed in the fall of 1861 and following brief frontier duty in Minnesota, the 4th Minnesota engaged in the strategically important Mississippi battles of Iuka (September 1862), Corinth (1862), and Vicksburg (July 1863). It later participated in the Battle of Chattanooga (November 1863), the “March to the Sea”, and the drive northward into the Carolinas (November 1864 – March 1865)

This flag with a Federal eagle device on its face and the state seal on its reverse was carried by the 4th Minnesota in the spring of 1862. It was purchased by the State of Minnesota from Horstmann Brothers, a Philadelphia military goods supplier

The motto on it is "L' Etoile du Nord", or "The North Star", an old nickname for Minnesota