The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1886-01-27
Among the Torn and TatterCd
Remnants Of Old Battle
Flags.
Half-FOrgOtten Deeds Of Daring
and Heroic Deaths On
Bloody Fields,
'And the star-spangled Banner in Tri
umph Doth Wave
Ger the Land Of the Free and the Home
of the Brave"

of the Brave"
Did you ever visit a State Aag-room
and read in the mute, torn and bloody
remnants the stories of death and car
mage? How eloquently the soiled and
silent silk and bunting with their torn
stripes and faded stars speak to those
who can read their wordless language
The visions Of bloody charges and he
rOiC exploits pass before your eyes as
you look upon these relics of that terri
Ole strife, and words can not picture to
us the suffering and sorrow, defeats and
victories, bivouacs and marches, charges
and repulses, as do these old voiceless
banners, The torn and smoke begrim-
med tatters tell us Of their services, the
missing stars add their stories of con-
tlicts, the shattered stafs recount the
tales of heroic devotion, and the stains
of blood chant a noteless dirge land
yet how full of sad melody and plaintive
harmony for the heroes whose lives
were sacrificed for that glorious emblem
Of liberty and union Our Imagination
goes back to the day when its bars were
Of spotless crimson and snowy white ;
when no stars were missing from the
bright field Of azure, and when it proud
ly hoated over jubilant recruits leaving
bright firesides, filed with hopes for a
speedy victory and a happy return to
loved ones. And then after the long
war was over we see their sorrowful re-
turn with decimated ranks and toil-worn
laces-Yet joyful that victory had crown
ed the right and declared that a loved
nation should yet live. No vivid imagi-
nation is needed to behold this review.
Who, standing under these blessed, sa.
cred relics and breathing the pure air of
freedom, can fail to see it? And who
lives there with soul so dead" he can
not read their silent and sorrowful sto-
ries as he gazes on the tattered rags un-
der which the Nations arms were led to
victory?
Not alone do t. .oy tell of smoke and
din, of CHASTITY wounds, of sorrow and
pain.
They tell us OF death.
They speak to us OF unmarked graves
in far off places; of graves the presence
of which are not marked by granite, but
by hOneysuckles and magnolia blossoms
instead; by intermingling vines and lux
uriant Southern flowers. They tell of
graves whose decoration day comes with
the opening of the first buds of spring
and ends when the last blossoms droop
and die beneath the frosts of autumn.
They tell, too, OF long rows of little
marble slabs on the greensward-little
stones that bear the sad legend-"U I'm
known"
Quite recently I visited the Memorial
Hall in the palatial new State House at
Springfield, Illinois, and to its courteous
custodian, Capt. II. B. Reed, am in
debted for many interesting stories con-
nected with the old flags and other
relics.
Among the flags Of the cavalry regi-
ments is that Of the Eighth, which has
the honor of opening the
BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG,
They fired the first shots on that mem
orable third Of July in '64 The soiled
and tattered banner bears witness to the
fact that its defenders were no towards.
BRAVE COLOR BEARERs.
Then there is the flag of the Thir-
teenth Infantry, under which five color
sergeants fell in one day and which was
the first flag carried into Richmond after
the surrender. Its last bearer who died
in the fray was Patrick Riley, and the
stains Of his life-blood are yet seen upon
its folds.
The flag of the Eighty-iourth Infantry
has a remarkable history. There is left
of it but a few feet of the shattered
staff and a bit of dirty red and white
only a strip about two feetlong and two
inches wide. The regiment though or
ganized and in the field a year before,
had seen no active service till the battle
of Stone River, and went into that fight
nearly 1000 strong. In four hours nine
balls struck the staH-their marks are
there yet-and of a color-guard of TWEEN
ty-seven men only two survived the ter
rible affray. When such a narrow,
slender stick of wood as this staff was
struck so often, we can but wonder that
even a single man could have lived
through the shower of lead. Five color
bearers fell during one single hour of
that battle, each in turn being replaced
by another Scarce did one pair of
manly hands loose their death grip than
others were ready to take their place,
and the regiment came out of its terri
O