For 159 years, many who have visited the Ionia County Courthouse may have seen the flag on the wall without giving it a second thought.
It’s not just a flag — it’s a story of survival, patriotism and pride.
After years of deterioration, the 21st Infantry Regiment Civil War battle flag has been restored to the condition it was in when it returned home in 1865. The community is invited to an unveiling and ceremony is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 29, at the Ionia Armory Community Center, 439 W. Main St.
If the flag on the wall could talk, it would speak of the heartache of surviving 13 battles.
In 1862, the flag went to war with men from 18 Michigan counties who formed the Ionia-based 21st Infantry Regiment.
“The battle flags they carried into combat with them were literally their proudest possession,” said Matt VanAcker, director and curator of Save the Flags.
These men — brothers, fathers, uncles and cousins — stepped up to fight for their country. Their emotional attachment to the flag is difficult to overstate.
“The state had made them four Civil War flags, but the ladies of Ionia — who were mothers, sisters and grandmothers of the men who volunteered to serve with the 21st Regiment — decided that they would have a flag handcrafted before they left in 1862,” said Eric Calley, commander of VFW Muir-Lyons Post. “The ladies of Ionia awarded that to the 21st Regiment.”
On July 4, 1865, one-tenth of Michigan’s population — about 75,000 people — headed to Detroit to welcome the Civil War soldiers home.
“The State of Michigan actually asked for their battle flags back,” Calley said. “But Col. Archer from the 21st Regiment said they could have four out of the five. The fifth one — the one the ladies of Ionia created — was given back to the ladies of Ionia.”
They became the stewards of the fifth flag, hanging it in the Ionia County Courthouse.
In the 1960s, during the Civil War Centennial, the flag underwent “conservation” that Calley and VanAcker say caused more harm than good. Netting sewn onto the back required tens of thousands of tiny stitches, and non-original fabric was added to make it appear fuller. Even the conservator noted that words were missing.
In recent years, the flag again needed significant help. Aware of VanAcker’s work preserving battle flags, Calley and Shane Houghton, quartermaster of the Ionia VFW, sought his guidance.
They determined that $60,000 was needed to restore the 21st Infantry Regiment flag to its 1865 condition. With community support, they raised the funds in eight months.
In April 2024, the flag was taken to Textile Preservation Associates Inc. in Ranson, West Virginia, for meticulous preservation. Now, in November 2025, the flag has returned to its original form.
Calley had the honor of driving the flag — now housed in a pressurized case — back to Ionia.
“Having it be 100 percent natural preserves the legacy, but it gives added respect to the history,” Calley said.
It marks a new chapter for the embattled 21st Infantry Regiment flag.
“Some people may look at it and think, ‘Boy, it looks worse than it did when we sent it off,’” VanAcker said. “But what they need to realize is that they’re seeing the original flag, as it looked when it was brought home from the battlefields by the boys of Ionia.”
After Saturday’s unveiling, Calley said the flag will return to hang proudly on the walls of the Ionia County Courthouse within about a week.
The Michigan Capitol Battle Flag Collection
Since the 1870s, Michigan battle flags have been safeguarded at the State Capitol. Michigan sent 90,000 soldiers to fight in the Civil War and lost 15,000.
Save the Flags, a nonprofit founded in 1990, now preserves these historical artifacts in a climate-controlled setting at the Michigan History Museum.
Seats are limited, but registration is encouraged for a screening of The Battle Flags of Michigan on Dec. 6, 2025, at Heritage Hall, 323 W. Ottawa St. The documentary includes reenactments and explores why these flags hold such significance.