Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-27
DIXIE BATTLE FLAGS
Arrangements Made for Their
Early Return.
VIRGINIA COMES FIRST
r {
MANY EMBLEMS COULD TELL
rHR1111Na TALES.
Have Been Boxed and Stored at War
Department Since the.
Civil War.
VIRGINIA COMES FIRST

eracy that have been stored away in the
dark vaults of the War Department for
twenty-three years will In few days be
brought out into the light and restored to
the survivors Of the gray legions that bore
them through the storms of shot and shell
In the civil war The storm flags Of the
sunny south received their baptism of fire
and smoke on many sanguinary battle
fields where the sons of the north and those
of the southland struggled for supremacy.
Some of them were made by the fair hands
of the daughters of Dixie and are therefore
doubly dear to the grim old veterans in
gray who are marching with faltering foot
steps to the final bivouac where the last
notes of plaintive taps are said to linger
as memory only.
Many of these emblerns Of the 'Iost
cause" have interesting and thrilling his
tories connected with, their capture In
some instances the fcoior-bearerS who held
them aloft in the excitement of battle were
killed before they would surrender their
sacred trusts, and in others those who
sought to capture the colors paid the PEN
atty with their lives. The old tattered flags
are tragic reminders of tragic days.
Now. after a lapse of more than forty
years, the old colors are by act of. Congress
and order of the Secretary of War being
turned over to the states whose sons bore
them in the brunt of the fray in the stir
ring days of the sixties. The first state to
make arrangements for the reception of
her venerable battle flags was Virginia.
There was some contention about the
old, tattered erlblems in 1888 between Con-
gress and the War Department authorities,
and Secretary of War Endicott informed
Congress that from 1862 to the close of the
war the generals commanding armies of
the United States in the field sent to the
War Department flags that were captured
by their troops in battle or received on
surrender. 1t Is also probable that some
flags of this description reached the depart
ment through other channels
"Of the whole number of flags thus cap
tured and deposited with the department.
236 were United States flags originally cap
tured by the confederates and recaptured
taken by the United States troops, making
a total of $50 in thec custody of the de-
partment.
Boxed and Stored.
In 1882, when there were many of the
flags on exhibition in the6 Ordnance War
Museum in the WinderS building on 18th
street, an order was issued by the Secretary
of War directing that they be boxed and
stored in the sub-basement of the War De-
partment and this was done.
1t also appears that eighteen years ago
the then adjutant general R.. c. Drum,
advised that the confederate flags be re-
caused a hue and cry and the project was
abandoned. = l4s F'ra
One of the most interesting trophies in the
collection of captured confederate flags
which were exhibited i'm the old ordnance
museum, in the Winder building, but of
which there Is apparently no mention in the
official list of captured flags was square
of black cambria attached to stout hick-
DRY staff. The inscription attached to it
stated that it wasE''the black flag raised by
Gen. Forrest, c. S. A., at Fort Pillow, to an
nounce that the confederates would give no
quarter to the negro troops who opposed
them"
Southern leaders have denied that such a
piratic emblem was employed by the con-
federates at any place or stage OF the civil
war, but the black cambria flag was GER
tainIy exhibited in the ordnance museum In
1882 inscribed as stated, and several vet
eran employees of the War Department with
whom Star reporter talked today remem-
Der it distinctly.
Flag No. 80.
A flag in the collection that has perhaps
the most tragic history Of all is numbered
80 in the list. 1t is the battle flag of the
famous Palmetto regiment of South Caro-
lima, and the War Department records
show that 1t was captured at Malvern Hill,
near the James river Va, July 1, 1862, by
Sergt. w. J. Whittrick of the SD Pennsyl-
vania Volunteers, Butterfeld's brigade. 1t
ment held an advanced position under a
whitening enfilading fire from the Union
forces until nearly all Its men had been
killed or wounded, When the VI, Union
handful of the brave South Carolinians
defending the position they had been
ordered to hold to the death. These had
piled up their own dead as uncanny works,
behind which they stubborn1y resisted the
assault of Butterfield's brigade The flag
was found upright. being held in position
by a pile of the dead soldiers in gray. A
foreign attache who witnessed the grim
work of the Palmetto regiment of South
Carolina said it deserved to be recorded
among the most gallant achievements of
war in the worlds history.
Another South Carolina battle flag was
captured after desperate resistance at the
battle of Antietam, September II, 1862, at
the stone wall in front of the LIST Brigade,
Sd Division, 9th Army Corps, by Private
Thomas Hare of Company D, 39th New
York Volunteers. After capturing the Pal
metto colors Private Hare was, shot down
by South Carolina ridemap.
Hand-to-Hand Struggle.
A hand-to-hand struggle resulted at the
battle of Five Forks, Va, before the colors
Of the 10th South Carolina Volunteers were
finally captured from the gigantic color
bearer by Capt. J. w. Scott OF Company D.
18TH Pennsylvania Volunteers, and several
The battle flag o fthe historic Sumter Fly
ing Artillery, famoua South Carolina
military organization. was captured at
Sailors Creek. April 6, 1866. by Sergt.
George ]: Pitman of Company C. New York
Lincoln volunteer Cavalry, under General
Custer. The flag had been CARRIED through
out the war by the Stffnter battery, which
at the time of the Capture Of the colors
had been reduced to a Bare ycorporars guard,
in size. ,,,;-,,r i
fantry was captured at the battle of New
Market Cross Roads. The original bearer
OF the colors was killed and second, who
attempted to recoverij and raise it, was
taken prisoner.
United States fag stars and stripes
was captured at the 1same battle from the
l1th Alabama Regiment. This flag was
carried by the confederates to deceive the
United States troops,dt is stated.
There are several of the confederate flags
that were found wrapped about the bodies
of their bearers, who stripped them from
their stats to save them from capture.
Two of these are stained by the life blood
of the bearers, who were shot while at