The American Civil war may have ended nearly a century and a half ago, but one of its last battles is still being fought - over a tattered, bullet-riddled and bloodstained Confederate flag captured at the Battle of Gettysburg.
The marching flag, emblazoned with the name of the 28th Virginia Infantry, was captured in 1863 by Marshall Sherman, a private in the Minnesota First Volunteer Regiment.
Now Minnesota is defying a demand from the government that, all being fair in love and war, it should be returned to Virginia.
Last week Brig-Gen John Brown, head of the US army's Centre of Military History in Washington, said the flag - at present held by the Minnesota Historical Society - belongs to the federal government and should be put on display in a new army museum in Virginia.
"We believe the status of the flag is loaned," he said in a letter to the members of the Virginia Congress. "By law, the proper custodian of the flag is the War Department - now the United States army. We intend that the flag be returned."
A spokesman for the Minnesota Historical Society said this week: "We do not consider Gen Brown's opinion a legal ruling. We do not anticipate following his suggestion that we turn over the flag to the army museum proposed in Virginia."
Last year a request for the flag to be given back was rejected by a vote of a Minnesota Senate committee.
Jesse Ventura, the forthright former wrestler who is governor of Minnesota, has robust views on the matter. When the Virginia Senate pleaded for the flag's return two years ago, he said: "Why? I mean, we won."
Mr Ventura announced yesterday that he would not be seeking a second term in office.
This week it was reported that the governor's 22-year-old son, Tyrel, had held drunken parties at his father's official residence.
