Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1866-12-21
The FIag-room Of our capitol.

A room in the Capitol at Columbus
has boen devoted to the preservation
Of the ''banners stained and torn, car
ried by Ohio's braves IN the great war
for the Union. The flags number $40
in all, and are arranged with the taste
and care appropriate to such precious
mementoes. Speaking of the room
and its visitors the State Journal says
The better part of men is uppermost
there. A something sWells in the
heart, flashes from the eye, and silences
/ the tongue a something indefnable,
/ except that we name it the grand old
I spirit of patriotism. The one-armed
soldier who opens the door suggests
! the story of the war The grand ell
( lipse of standing flags bursts upon the
vision as halo Of glory clustering
about the memory of Ohio part in
the war. The flags grouped upon the
walls of the room extend the view,
and 0hiO's Army rises in detail-Cav-
airy, Artillery and Infantry. Artistic
in its arrangement, numbered by no
furniture to spoil the army association,
an apartment devoted alone to flags,
the Flag Room stands to-day the best
known division of the Capitol.
The visitors include every age, ev-
cry race, and every calling. The lisp
ing four year old who comes with dim
mysterious feeling to kiss the folds of
the flag beneath which his father died,
and the gray haired old man of seven
ty who spends half the day IN climb
ing the stairway to press to his lips
the spintered staff, shattered by the
bullet that killed his boy the mulat-
TO boy who played the cook to some
favored officer. and slyly played the
hero. too, with rife matched to his
masters sword the quiet old lady
whose black bonnet tells to her ac-
quaintances the story of a son and
grandson lost in battle the young
widow who bids her little boy kneel at
/ the foot of the battle flag Of the ''0ld
Thirteenth the straight up and
I down old soldier who uncOnscIOusly
removes his hat and salutes as he
catches a glimpse Of our flag; the
4 color bearer who lost an arm holding
( that flag; the colonel who COM
manded the day that staff was shat
/ tered these and such as these are
I the visitors to the Flag Room.
/ The Register tells, too. It's curious
story. The stiff autograph of the
4 Kansas JayhaWker stands sido by side
with the bold signature of the Briga-
/ der General. The names of color
f sergeants5 among those of soldiers. are
most numerous. Here representa-
+ tive of a Virginia regiment looks out
In name In the same rank with one
from the 18th Massachusetts and
here the palsied hand of the Old man
has left its mark cOniointly with tho
cramped peumanship Of the boy of
twelve.
The simple remarks written with
many Of these names speak volumes.
In delicate feminine hand is traced,
/ God bless the men who carried these
flags In bold, round sweep, there
lives5upon the record. This room com
memorates a nation glory and a ma
tion's tears, and in emphatic Ian
guage is written, Let traitors look at
these flags and think of the silent
dead Under date of October 9th is
traced in joyous running lines, Hur-
rah for Shellabarger. Miss Lizzie
Chester. Of PHILADELPHIA. writes, Nov.
I'd, None but the plueky deserve the
pretty and James Judson Cox, of
Mansfield, Nov. Dist, Nine years old
this day, at 4 A. M In the same
column an old man traces, Resided
lin Ohio twenty mine years-helped
build the State House" Some are
careless utterances, but a great number
correspond with the spirit that rules
in the flag room. The visitor is start
led ever and anon, as he looks down
the long columns of visitors names,
4 by some one, that by its association be-
1 comes present almost as a personality.
Here the face of an old one-armed
oomrade ia battle looks out upon him
from the left-haud penmanship, and
, here an old time girlish friend, a mat
ron now. impelled by some curious
thought, has written her maiden name,
as none but schoolmates knew her,
( and the bright blooming Sister S. -
comes dancing from the long time ago
to greet many an old schoolmate who
bends over the Flag Room Register.
Right in its associations. q monument
. in itself, the Flag Room has become a
sacred spot where the soldiers friends
come to think, to weep, 'perchance to
, dream.
MODEST.