The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-03-05
THE GUARDS WAR FLAG.
ITS CAPTURE IN THE FIGHT AT
SAILORS CREEK.


SAILORS CREEK
It Comes to Light as the Most Nota-
BILE Trophy OF the War-Its Presen-
tation to the Corps by the Young
Ladies of savanrah-Its Loss and
Ultimate Recovery-Safely Housed
in a Glass Case at the Guards
Armory.
The battle flag of the Savannah
Volunteer Guards seems 10 be looked upon
in the North as one of the most notable of all
those captured in the war between the States.
The Buffalo Express, after alluding TO the
many Southern banners that have been
turned over since the war, has this to say
of the Guards battle flag:
The most notable Of all these war trophies
however was the Confederate flag captured
after an impctuous charge OF the one Hundred
and Tweuty-ftrSt New YORK Volunteers. from
the Savannah Volunteer Guards, by Private
Warren bockerm, company ii, at the battle OF
Sailor Creek. Inc nag bears the inscription:
For Our Affairs and Our Hearths, savannah
Volunteer Guards, 1862" and was most stub
borny defended.
The flag may well be called notable,
and the Ea.press very appropriately says it
twas most stubbornly defended for so it
WIS lie SAVANNAH ' OlulbsCT GuuuNs
said one of the men who defended
it at Sailors Creek, do not have
to thank President Cleveland for It's re-
turn. We got it from Wash
ington in 1871. How Well, we prefer not
to say through what channels. 1t is in our
aITnory, in glass case.
THE FLAG ITSELF.
The banner is OF red silk, bound with
silver fringe. Over a silver altar on one
side is the motto. Pro arts et focisn--"For
our affairs and firesides, 1852 On the re-
verse side is a silver star II was originally
intended to have the coat of arms of
Georgia worked on this side, but as the ladies
worked the silver star it was decided TO let
it remain. In the second year of the war
the flag was presented to the Guards, in
Court House square, by the young ladies of
Savannah, and it was borne in triumph until
the almost utter humiliation of the Guards
at Sailors Greek, on April 6, 1865, only
three days before the star OF the Southern
Confederacy went down at Appomattox
Ia the fateful battle Of Sailors creek 200
Confederate st<od for hours encircled by an
army of 72000 Federals and seven of the
nine officers of the Guards Battalion were
killed, the eighth, Capt. John r. Dillon,
being wounded. Only one escaped unin-
jured, while all were captured. The last
man who bore the banner was the brave
color bearer, John Sheridan, who was
wounded and fell clinging to the colors
which had never been yielded before. As
the Guards were fording Sailors creek, the
staff of the flag was struck from in front,
and then for the first time the battalion knew
that it was surrounded by overwhelming
numbers Crossing the creek the corps, then
only eighty-hve in number, attacked the
enemy in front, and captured two Tegi-
mental flags upon which was laid
fhofrr Tod os,vya Ia Foy,t MI
one of only two of their surviving
officers in the bloody battle. OF the eighty
five men in the battalion that fought three
Federal regiments on that day and repulsed |
them, then attacked and drove them from
the field, capturing two stands of colors |
thirty were killed. and twenty-five
were wounded before they surrendered |
The news of the surrender of Gen
Ewell and his corps came to the Guards in
the very flush OF their victory. and yielding
10 the overpowering numbers this remnant |
of gallant band succumbed to the inevi-
table.
CAPTURE OF THE FLAG.
Such heroism as the Guards displayed after
four years of arduous service, during all of
which time their hammer had never before
been lowered TO the foe, and only then in the
diving throes of the Inflated Southern cause,
and within lesS than three days of the sur
render of Lee is well calculated TO have at
tention called to it, even at this late day.
The 'impetuous charge" is not so histor-
ically accurate. The wounded color-bearer
was down. Seven officers lay dead upon
the field, an eighth was lying upon the two
captured flags of the enemy bleeding from
his wounds, and only one officer was unin-
jured. Ewell had surrendered, and the
thirty-three men who survived could not
have repealed an attack which needed not
to have been ''impetuous.n The battalion
Eurrnn1arad its bqCprprlV few v-h IN survived
that its wounded might have attention and
its dead might have burial upon a field of
honor until such time as it could bring them
back and give them sepulture at a home
where the same hands that worked the
motto on their banner could garland its de-
tenders with flowers.
DEAR TO THE GUARDS.
Not in the spirit which Mr. Boutelle would
attribute TO the valorous men who carried
the silver star from Savannah to the front
in Virginia do the Guards treasure
the trophy. Bravely defended by
the descendants of sires who sprang
to arms to repel British invasion in
1912, they prize it as endeared to them in
che weary march, and the fateful conflict
In its defense the blood of brave people
flowed freely, and they hold it better TO
give it place of honor in their armory
than that it should moulder and decay
in the rubbish rooms at Washington,
from which fate kindly hand rescued it
seventeen years ago, and returned il to its
yalorous defenders. "All we have to say
about it is this" said one Of the Guards, "Mr.
Boutelle can't blame Grover Cleveland that
we have our old flag back We got it I'M
der Republican administration, but none
of US viii tell how we got it. In fact there
are only three or four of us that do know,
and we are not prepared to tell yet.