Evening star., 1898-06-30
Confederate Battle Flags.

To the Editor Of The Evening Star:
do not know where the writer of the ar
ticle in Saturdays Star obtained his in
formation as to the sentiment of the mem
bers of the Confederate Veterans Associa-
tioh of this city in regard to the captured
southern battle flags, but as a member Of
that association will you permit me ta say
that the writer Of that articles scarcely un-
derstands the position of the eX-confederate
soldiers on this subject. The men who,
with q fort1tude sustained by the loftiest
patriotism suffered fought and bled under
these battle flags, who followed them for
TOUR long years on many weary march,
often barefooted, ragged and hungry, or
saw them waving amid the smoke and
carnage of battle, regard these flags as
''furled forever" because the causes which
gave these flags an existence have passed
away with the march of time. New aspira-
tions have taken the place of those to
realize which the people of the south more
than third of a century ago, with hearts
and souls OVERLOOKING with love of coun-
try staked and lost everything but honor.
And now, today. none more than the eX-
confederate rejoices over reunited people
The spirit of the age and hour is eminently
his. Why? Because 9S per cent of them
trace their ancestry directly back to the
revolutionary fathers AS class they are
today the purest-blooded and purest minded
Americans, who recognize the stars and
stripes as the flag of their country. AS to
the battle hags-why should a brave soldier
ask for, even suggest, the return of his
flag legitmately lost in honorable defeat?
For those of these flags which We're cap
tured upon the battlefield when opposing
lines were arrayed against each other he
knows that full as many, If not more of
the other side We're taken as were lost by
his own side. Those which were quietly
surrendered with the final stacking Of
arms on the fall of the confederacy he
knows We're simply yielded to the force of
a -lalI mi inc 1rah ha &c
of their history, he recognizes that the for
tunes of war entitle those who have them
to keep them as long as they want them,
and to claim all the credit they entitled
to from their possession. So, let 1t be I'M
derstood that the confederate soldier, so
far from being a supplicant in this matter
Is not even suggesting a return of these
flags. This is the sentiment, 1 feel sure,
of njnety-nine ex-confederates in every
hundred. Whoever started the idea of re-
turning these flags got not his promptings
from the men who fought under them, and
II Congress shall ever pass an act providing
who was confederate soldier should vote
in favor of its passage. He need not vote
against it, but good taste will suggest that
he decline to vote at all. Lastly, Congress
should not pass any such act until request
ed to do by that representative associa-
ton of the real soldiers Of the north during
the civil war. 1 mean the Union Veteran
League. That association constitutes or
represents the men VINO captured these
flags. and, therefore, are the men who
should have the first say about them. The
ex-confederate does not say that he would
refuse to recognize in such an act that
spirit of chivalry which, as thoroughbred
American soldier he could not but admire;
but the same spirit impels him to say that
he does not desire and would not appre-
ciate their return by men who had no hand
in capturing them as long as there survives
any of the men who did and who or a
large majority of whom, object to it.
FRANKLIN H. MACKEY.
June 20, 1898.