, 1901-10-30
CONFEDERATE FLAG.
FIRST HoiSTED IN NORTHWEST
AT OLD FORT LARA.
ME.
Went Up One Night After a carousal
by Certain Southern Sym%pathizers
Among h Officers of the Troops
at the Fort-Was Taken Down and
Burned.

Fort Laramie"
The words were words of authority.
They were uttered by Ordinance Ser
geant Edward Kelly, retired, who has
served in the army of the United
States almost continuously since he
came to America from county Galway.
Ireland, forty-five years ago..
The personal history of Sergeant
Kelly would make a thick and vastly
Interesting volume. He enlisted first
in April. 1858, in the Tenth United
States infantry. and started straight
for Utah. across the plains with the
Utah expedition under Colonel A.. B.
Alexander, whose son is now assistant
surgeon general, stationed on Cover
nor's island, New York. He fought
many a bloody battle with the Sioux
in keeping open the overland mail
route and was at Fort Laramie when
the shot fired on Fort Sumpter set the
divided country at war. When his first
term of service expired and he was dis.
charged at Leavenworth. Kan, he went
back to New York and enlisted i'll the
Fifteenth New York heavy artillery.
He served through the Wilderness
campaign and was appointed sergeant
for bravery on the field of Spottsyl-
vania. In the fighting before Peters
burg he was wounded in the leg by a
fragment Of a shell. He still suffers
from this wound. and it was because
of it that he was retired as ordinace
sergeant in 1891.
In the curse of his long and faithful
career as a soldier, Kelly obtained
knowledge Of the lives and characters
of many of the great soldiers of the old
and new times, and his talk Of them is
more than interesting, for it is histori.
cally valuable. But the conversation
of last night turned on the outbreak of
the civil wal and its effects on the Off
GERS and men of the line, in remote re-
gions, and this called forth the remark
quoted.
ut was some time early in go, I re-
member. that the incident l referred to
occurred" continued the sergeant. 1T
was after Captain Bee left us-and be-
fore l go any further l must say a word
about Captain Bee-Captain Barrett E.
Bee of South Carolina, as fine a gentle
man as ever wore a sword. He was in
command OF our company, D. when the
news came that his state had seeded.
He was very quiet about everything
he did. He called all of us together
oue4dss and said, Boys, Pm going to
leave you. ! am a South Carolinan and
my stste needs me. / believe in states
rights apd am loyal to my state. l
am s0insA fight for her; but you boys
which you are called. Stand to your
colors as l shah stand to mine And
he went. All, there was a grand man!
He died from the effects of a wound he
received at tak first Bull Run. He died
a major in the confederate service. II
he had lived he would have been a gen.
eral and the name OF no soldier OF the
south would have teen written higher
on the pillar of fame.
Now I'll go on and tell you what l
started on at first. Fort Laramie was
then only a two-company post. but it
was regimental headquarters and there
were sixteen officers there besides
Colonel Alexander, who was in COM
mand. OF these sixteen, fourteen were
southerners, and as the news OF prob
able war kept coming, these young fell
lows got more and more excited and
obstreperous. All the officers, or lear
ly all. in those days were pretty free
in their habits, and these southern fell
lows were the widest of all. They put
In a large part Of their time drinking
Fwhiskey and then they would cut up
awfully, shouting 'Hurrah for JEFF Da-
visit and To h with Abe Lincoln
and all such things az that.
"But there wasn't any way to stop
them. Discipline forbade our saying
anything, and the two Northern Off
GERS we're in too much of a minority.
They were afraid to raise a whisper Of
remembrance. The flag affair came up
in this way. The officers, that is the
southern Officers, were registering at a
g\eat rate that night and 1t was long
after midnight when they came out Of
their club room, all drunk and as full
OF the old nick as ever you saw.
THE sentinel challenged them as
they came along, but they only abused
him and told him to go to HI The
ofncer Of the day was called, and he.
seeing who It was. said: oh. that's
all right and nothing could be done
about It. But early the next morning
the sentinel called me-. l was sergeant
Of the guard.
Gone oat here. I want to show you
something said he.
II followed him out on the parade
ground. It M just coming daylight.
He pointed to an old adobe house at
the other side Of the ground and said:
"'Do you $50 that nag waving on the
end Of that onttonwood pole stuck in
the gable Of that housef'
"Yes,' said I. What ID it,
II don't know said he.
go and fetch the thing to me- said
I. and he did 70.
aft vvss !, ANAL suuare affair. clumsi.