The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1900-05-04

~ less.
General Early was there. He
saw no big flag anywhere.
There were plenty of candy flags
he called them--toy flags in
the hands of children and pinned
across the bosoms of their moth
ers and grown sisters. Says old
lube: son the hill there was a
front porch crammed with little
flags and babies, and grown
women with pinned flags, when a
private in Louisiana regiment,
an Irishman-many of the Gre
oles were Irish born-Said: Ar.
rah, honey, We had better take
that dishrag in, for we always
storm breastwOrks with the mgrid-
irons above them" and says the
cynic, "That crowd dispersed
like a charge of canister when it
burStS.n
The fact is we have had no such
mania about flags as our respect
ed friends, the enemy. Our men
did not care cent. They'd
rather have a "meal of vittles"
than two flags. During this visit
L punished a man for insulting a
flag i'll the street. A soldier came
riding by dragging a garrison
flag, which he had taken from the
Junior engine house along the
street, L Jumped on my horse at
the City Hotel and rode straight
at him i'll front of Bartges' Hotel,
diagonally across the street, and
ordered him to give me the flag.
Instead of doing so he dropped
his hand to his right hip, but ]
was too quick for him. | took
him across the top of his head
with the back of my revolver and
he dropped as if he was dead.
Years afterwards | met him in
Virginia and he thanked me for
1t. He said that he deserved it
and that it had done him a power
of good, at which view of the
situation l was much gratified
and greatly relieved. There must
be 90 people still alive in Fred.
erlck who saw this incident of the
flag, for there was a great crowd
of citizens around.
Again, as to Early'S levy on
Frederick of 100000, Congress
ought to pay it and interest at
once. 1t is just and honest
claim. They repaid Chambers
burg long ago and Frederick was
as loyal and more cantankerous
than Chambersburg.
Rut to say that the town was
i'll danger or that its destruction
was threatened is ridiculous, and
that it saved Washington is non
sense. | left EARLY that morning
before sunrise to ride around Bal
timOre and go to Point Lookout
to release the prisoners there, and
therefore knew nothing of the
forced levy until | rejoined Early
i'll Rockville on his retirement
from before Washington. Had
l been present | am confident the
thing never would have been
done. Early was an irasclble
man, but as reasonable and
amenable to logic as any man
that | ever saw. | should have
taken the position that my own
friends and family would be the
greatest sufferers. My uncle was
president of the largest bank and
my cousin of the savings institu-
ton, and the family were large
stockholders and generally
Southern sympathizers, and their
young men almost all in the Con
federate Army and he would
have let the matter drop. But in
justice to him it must be SAID his
soldiers were barefoot, ragged
and hungry, and he was entitled
by all the rules of humane war.
fare to take necessary supplies
wherever found. 1t was a ques.
ton whether to throw the loss on
individuals or apportiOn it to
whole community. He chose the
latter, and | think that he was
wise. But he never had the most
remote idea of destroying the
town. His quartermaster and
commissarybOught all the supplies
in the place and paid for them in
Frederick bank notes. At least
l heard so on my return to the
army at Rockville, and l have
always believed it. He took very
little of the contribution to Vir.
ginia with him.
l would be glad to assist the
Frederick people in getting their
money. They ought to have had
it long ago with interest, and |
don't see why this Congress don't
give it to them. But | want to
see the recovery on honest and
proper grounds. BY the law es
tablished and practiced there 30
years ago by the victor the loyal
people are entitled to be paid for
losses caused by the rebels. That
is all right if they think il wise