The Detroit Institute of Arts has sold a piece of Americana. A flag that flew as General George Armstrong Custer's troops were defeated at the Battle of the Little Bighorn was auctioned off today.
The Associated Press Reports:
The only U.S. flag not captured or lost during George Armstrong Custer's "Last Stand" at the Battle of Little Bighorn in southeastern Montana has been sold for $2.2 million.
The buyer was identified only as an American private collector.
The frayed 7th U.S. Cavalry flag - known as a "guidon" for its swallow-tailed shape - was sold Friday at Sotheby's auction house in New York.
The seller was the Detroit Institute of Arts, which bought the flag for just $54 in 1895. Custer and more than 200 troopers were massacred by Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne warriors in the infamous 1876 battle. Of five guidons carried by Custer's battalion, only one was immediately recovered.
