The National tribune., 1885-08-13
How the LIST Mimi, Lost Its CoIors.

To THE EDITOR: / have noticed several ar
ticles in various papers about the loss of regi-
mental colors, etc. My object is simply to
show how such calamity can happen, while
in action, to the best regiments. The LIST. VI inn.
f, (Of which l had the honor to be member had
| a pretty good reputation as a fighting regiment.
| Therefore, to illustrate how easy regiment
can lose its colors, | will relate an incident
| that occurred in my regiment in the battle at
| Savage Station, Va, June 30 1862. As a mat
| ter of fact the LIST MINI. during that day was
without its flag from o'clock p m. to about
! 10 p. NJ, yet it certainly was not its fault.
| 1t happened in this wise: We were in German S
| Brigade, Sedgwick's (Second) Division, Sum-
ner's (SecOnd) Corps, and were ordered forward
when the enemy appeared at the edge of the
woods on the west side of the large field ut the
station They had placed a battery in position a
short distance up this road, and the guns of this
battery were served in manner that was a
credit to the rebs but death to u.s. for they sent
their compliments In the shape OF grape and
canister thick and fast We had been engaged
there buta short time, when, l think, the 9Th VT.
came up behind us and passed through our
ranks and formed in our front. At the COM
lnand forward" given to the Vermont regi-
ment, our Color Sergeant, George Burgess, who
seemed not to have noticed the change, adj
vanced with it, followed by S. Bloomer and
Frank Walden, two of the color-guard, the rest
! remaining in line with their regiment. After
advancing with this new line probably 10 rods
called his attention to the fact that we were
not with our regiment, and he then seemed to
| notice for the first time the strange faces. In
an instant he about-faced and started back on
the double-quck to the place where he thought
we had left our regiment, but not finding 1t,
tit having meanwhile been withdrawn by the
right flank to the north side of the road,) he
again abOut-faced with the intention of rejoin-
ing the Vermont regiment. We had advanced
but a short distance when the brave fellow was
killed. The cOlors were seized at once by Corp
Boomer. We also concluded to carry out the
intentions of Serg't Burgess, and If possible
rejoin the Vermont regiment that presumably
was in our front.
In some mysterious way, however, we soon
found ourselves ight in the midst of rebel in
fantry. To say that we were astonished would
be putting it mild. 1t dawned upon our minds
at once that we had no particular business there
with our regimental flag, and that some other
locality would be more agreeable to us. so
when the Johnnies made rush to take in the
two " lone" Yanks with their colors we made
mastery retreat or rush to hunt up our re-
serves. We did not wait for the order to go, but
went and went right quick. The chances of us
getting out of that place with whole skins or for
the 1st MINI. ever seeing their flag again short
OF Richmond were about as encouraging to US
| then as Sections 1854 and 1855, Revised Stat
utes, are now to those who wore the blue. But
to our surprise and, l suppose, to the surprise
of the Johnnies, we did get out, although in so
doing we had to face fire from our own line
What puzzled us most was the fact that the first
troops of our line that we met was the very
Vermont regiment that had passed through our
ranks-the one that we were so anxiously look
ing for. We took our places in the ranks of
the Vermont boys, where we remained until
the firing had entirely ceased. Then about 10
o'clock p. m, when everything was quiet and
very dark, we concluded to find our own regi-
ment which fortunately we soon found stand
ing in line near the road.-SANUEL BLOOMER,
Color Sergeant, LIST Mimi, Saltwater, Mimi.