Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1901-01-05
MEN WHO KISSED THE FLAG.
Libby Prisoners Who Went Wild
Over Stars and tripes.


Once / saw thousands OF men weeping
as they tried TO kiss our flag says a
veteran of the Civil war They had
heen captured in battle at MurfreesbOro,
Tenn, and the writer was in the number
For a long while we existed i'll Libby
prison, where, when looking out through
the glassless windows of an exceptionally
cold winter, we used to see the COnfeCer-
ate ensign floating over the state house
in Richmond. We were, for all prac-
teal purposes, in a foreign land, and oh,
how we were deSpised and spat upon.
But by and by we were sent away from
the filthy warehouse to City Point on
the James river, whence we were taken
10 Old Point Comfort, and so on home
again.
After leaving Petersburg, | was, with
sixteen other members of my regiment,
in the last car of a long train that was
running slowly, and which, as we neared
City Point, curved about large hill thai
ovcrhung our left. Soon the boys in the
front car began to shout, and as the
locomotive moved along this shouting
grew louder and more extended. We who
were well toward the rear end of the
train knew nothing whatever of the
cause Of this hearty cheering while still
i'll the enemy's country, and as it grew in
volume We were almost mad with eager
ness and excitement. Meanwhile the
train was swinging around the hill; pres
entity our car had also made the bend.
and then we too joined in the wild en-
thuSasm that rose loudly above the rat
Ting wheels and the escaping steam.
For there, only a short distance away,
lay a steamboat from the North await
ing us. and the Stars and Stripes was
not only floating nj ner sternpoSt, but 1t
was spread to the breeze all over her
II was the first time III many long and
weary months that any of us had seen the
flag. and in all my life | never before nor
since saw a flag so beautiful"
Another veteran tells this story:
There was once n hard battle. known i'll
history as that of Missionary Ridge. II
was fought close TO Chattanooga, Tenn.
and before we had reached the heights
no fewer than half n dozen fellows had
come to grief while trying to bear our
rcgimental colors with the advancing col
umn. 1t was thus, too, all along the
'front.' heroes everywhere, color-bearers
falling as the brown leaves fall in au-
tumn. But no chieftain had sung ont to
ms. Soldiers, behold your flags. Follow
them.
Indeed. no one ever knew why that
particular Army of the Cumberland fled
forward and it was with grave concern
that Grant saw the magnificent charge
he had ordered to the first line of rifle
pits continue beyond that point. Thorn
as, who ordered those men up the RIDGE
ne numbered 0t the nero of ChlCka-
mauga,' who was by his side on Orchard
Knob. i don't know replied Old Pap.
i did not. Granger, did your No
said Gordon Granger; they are doing it
without orders
Charles \. Dana, who saw the battle,
always maintained that the stOrming of
that ridge was one of the greatest mira
cles in military history. There were half
hundred regimental flags carried up the
steep hillside and into Braggs batteries
that day, and perhaps all of them fol- as
often from some color-bearers hands as
our own. | know nothing about that, but
have vivid recollection of seeing one flag
already and long since rddlcd with
balls, torn with the fragments of shell,
tattercd by the wear of severe campaigns
fan from the grasp of six or more killed
or badly-WoundCd men, for hardly had if
reached the earth when another Gnickly
seized ii and hciG It aloft again. And Of
those still living who were in that rrri
mCnt not one likes it when our united
country's emblem is called by any other
name than flag!
we cannot bring ourselves to saw Old
GLORY. That appellation is sentimental
and means nothing. Old Glory! Bauch,
OldE Why, our flag is new. ever youth
ful III its yigor. And it never stood, and
It never will, | hope, for glory alone.
Never was there worse miSnaming of
that wonderfully beautiful banner which
Heats throughout the world as emblcmat-
IL OF greht country and great nation -
The Patriotic Review.