The National tribune., 1908-04-09
HISTORY OF A FLAG FOR ONE DAY.
A Glimpse of What the Battle Flags
Mean to Those who Followed Them.

AT the tlTf1e Oh tne tTdUSleT Ol Tie
| flags of the Union regiments of Mary
land to the fire-proof rooms which had
been prepared for them in the State
House, Comrade John X. King, as
Chairman of the Commission, sent in
vitations to all the Maryland veterans
thruout the country to attend. In reply
| he received the following letter of
touching interest from a member of his
own regiment:
| Your kind invitation to be with you
on the 21st is received, and, oh, how ]
too far away. How 1 would like to
follow the old flags once more, if only
for a short distance, with the oldAblue
cross and G. A. r. badge pinned on my
breast. / sincerely nope 1 may live
! long enough to be able TO visit them
| in their resting place. / would like to
see one of them in particular (our State
colors), which we carried at Winches-
! ter on Sept. 19, 1854, on account of my
very close connection with it on that
day. If you were there you will re-
member where we lay before we start
ed on the charge across that
open field. "B" was then the
color company, and my position as
| Orderly-Sergeant threw me right up
against the color guard. Capt. Rouzer
was there, too. but we had not gone
/ lHdH Hdll-hds slSlOSS lliS HSiu Dt-
fore Capt. Rouzer fell. / stopped long
enough to ask him il he was badly hurt,
and he told me no, to go ahead with
| the company, and that was the last i
saw of him for many day..
We had not gone very far before the
man who was carrying the State colors
| fell wounded. l picked up the colors
and handed them to another man OF
the color guard, but he had not gone
| 70 H. CHI md
then picked them up for the second
| time and kept them myself, as the bal
ance of the guard were somewhat scat
| tered. In some way / got ahead of the
regiment and went down into a low
swale or ravine with house off to our
left. 1 got, I should judge. halfway
up the hill on the other side of the
ravine and got within know not moro
I than 100 yards from rebel battery
which was posted there and working
hard. When I looked around, to my
utter surprise the regiment was gone
l had filed to the left, as / understood
afterwards. and had gone down the ra-
vine; but there / was, nobody near me
but one man, little Gregg, of Co. G.
think that was his name-a little, short
fat fellow. I asked him what had be.
come of the regiment. "D-d if
know" was his answer. Then / told
him, for Gods sake, to get out of there
we were alone. We went back into tbs
hollow, he going straight ahead the way
we went in, and 1 turning to the right
. and down the ravine around an ole
house and onto the pike l got away
!, and Gregg went around by Richmond
to get back.
1 hunted for the regiment for quit,
awhile. finally meeting Lieut.. Burns
q think, of Co. Al and four or fiy'
!, men. Sam Ferguson, of my own corr
/ pany, was one. They had also lost tn,
J regiment 1t was still pretty hot there
the men dropped into the ditch; Burn
and l stood talking in the road awhil,
until he thought we had better NOV,
5 on. / still carried the flag, but 1 told
; him he had better take it, as I had beer
struck on the fieshy part of my righ
: leg by canister or spent ball of som'
kind, and it was commencing to hur
/ me badly, and ] might not be able t,
travel long. He said all right, h
would. We were standing perhaps fou
:; feet apart. ] set the staff over toward
= his feet. Just as he leaned it agains
his shoulder l heard shell comm,
:, from rebel battery I think he hear,
r it. too. as / saw him turn his hea,
S slightly. l thought il was high, goin;
: away over our heads, but it struck poo
Burns on the side of the head, and jus
as ii struck him it burst and took tn,
= whole top OF his head off.
: once heard there was some question
1 as to where and how he was killed. /
Y was just as / have explained, and hi
blood and brains We're spattered al
over the flag. / again took the flag
Y and kept II all day. ] did not find tn
s regiment until after dark. ! remembe
when / found it. Damorest was tn
first man 1 saw. sitting over little fire
rubbing his hands and singing, ID
! Z S11fzN eIag
they ever think of me?"
Remember me to the boys-Thoma
Duff, First Lieutenant, 6ta Md, Britt
Iowa.