During the Civil War, Westminster was divided between Confederate and Union sympathizers. Mary Ann “Mollie” Huber, a Union supporter, organized a sewing circle of a dozen like-minded women at her house, where they made a large United States flag and embroidered their names on its stars, with Mollie Huber’s name on the central star. The flag flew atop the courthouse cupola on June 29, 1863, until news came that Confederate forces were approaching, and Abraham Huber had it taken down and hidden in the courthouse’s fireproof vault. After the cavalry engagement in Westminster’s streets with the 1st Delaware Cavalry, Gen. J.E.B. Stuart learned from Southern sympathizers about the flag and where it was hidden, and he ordered Capt. John Esten Cooke to remove it from the vault. Cooke later recounted breaking open the clerk’s office vault with a candle and axe, seizing the flag, and sending it to Richmond. After the war, efforts to recover the flag for Westminster continued into the 20th century without success. Among damaged equipment from the Gettysburg battlefield later seen on Court St. was the “Gettysburg Gun,” a cannon from Battery B, 1st Regiment, Rhode Island Volunteer Light Artillery on Cemetery Ridge that was damaged on July 3 when a Confederate shell lodged in its barrel; Westminster residents remembered seeing it pass through town on its way to repair shops, and it is now at the Rhode Island statehouse.