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THB[CIVIL WAR] 34-Star Cavalry Guidon re: Gen. George Crooks
![[CIVIL WAR] 34-Star Cavalry Guidon re: Gen. George Crooks](https://s1.img.bidsquare.com/item/xl/3268/32689105.jpeg?t=1UWOB6)
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About Auction
LiveNov 22, 2025
This exclusive catalog presents a select offering from the personal collection of Alejandro "Alex" de Quesada Jr., renowned historian, author, and collector. The catalog features exceptionally rare swords, historically significant belt buckles and military insignia, original Civil War flags, and a wide range of ephemera representing pivotal moments in military history. Fleischer's Auctions info@fleischersauctions.com
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- Lot Description
United States. 34‑Star swallow‑tail guidon associated with Major General George Crook; framed with a portrait of Crook and a typed provenance letter from Richard L. “Dick” Blakesley. [America, ca. 1861–63].
Framed overall: h. 29 × w. 40 in. (73.6 × 101.6 cm). Not examined out of frame.
A Civil War swallow‑tail guidon with blue canton bearing an arrangement of stars and thirteen red‑and‑white stripes, the fly deeply notched to form the classic cavalry swallow‑tail.
In the accompanying typed letter, Richard L. “Dick” Blakesley presents the history the guidon, stating it was first used by General Philip Sheridan’s men during the Civil War. According to the account, General George Crook later took the flag west, flying it during his campaigns against the Sioux after the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, during operations in Idaho against the Piute and Snake peoples, and ultimately in his suppression of Geronimo and the Apache in the 1880s. Blakesley relates that the flag descended through Crook’s heirs before coming into his possession, even winning recognition in a Chicago Tribune contest as the “oldest flag.”
General George Crook (1828–1890) was a prominent United States Army officer whose career spanned both the Civil War and the Indian Wars of the late 19th century. An Ohio native and 1852 graduate of West Point, Crook first distinguished himself in the Civil War as a Union officer, rising to command cavalry and infantry units in major campaigns in Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley. After the war, he remained in the Regular Army and gained renown as one of the most effective commanders in the nation’s western campaigns.
Crook developed a reputation for strategic innovation and for his efforts to understand and at times advocate for the Native American peoples he fought. He played leading roles in conflicts with the Paiute, Shoshone, Sioux, and Apache, commanding campaigns in the Great Plains and the Southwest. He was involved in the pursuit of Sitting Bull following the Little Bighorn, and most famously led operations against Geronimo and the Chiricahua Apache in the 1880s. Crook’s methods combined relentless field campaigning with attempts to secure fairer treatment for Native groups, though his legacy remains tied to the violent displacement central to U.S. expansion. He died of natural causes in 1890, while still on active duty, and was widely regarded as one of the Army’s most respected frontier generals.
Condition. Overall toned; scattered foxing and soiling; horizontal stress lines and separations to some stripes; edge fray and small losses along the fly; typical pin‑or stitch‑mounting impressions from display; letter brittle with edge chipping and short tears; photograph with minor surface wear. As framed; not examined out of frame.
Provenance. By family tradition General George Crook; Richard L. (“Dick”) Blakesley; James D. Julia Auctions, Fairfield, Maine, 14–16 October 2013, lot 2279; private collection.
Note: This lot cannot be packaged and shipped in-house. Successful bidders winning items marked as being packaged and shipped by a third-party service are responsible for paying the third party directly. We are happy to offer complimentary drop-off service to local third-party packing/shipping companies in Columbus, Ohio.
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