Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-11-07
New Use for Venerable Edifice
at West Point.
REMOVAL TO CEMETERY
Building of Classic Design Erected
in the Year 1884.
MANY TROPHIES ON ITS WALLS
British Flags Captured During the
Revolutionary War-Gen. Della
fields Marble Tablets.

BY WILLIAM r. CURTIS.
Written for The star and the Chicago Record
Herald
II is a matter of qualification to every
graduate of the Military Academy that
tho venerable chapel at West Point will
not he destroyed i'm the reconstruction OF
the buildings, but will be carefully taken
down brick by brick. and re-erected in
the most cemetery as "A mortuary chapel
The chaplain at West POist is appointed
every four years by the President and re-
ceives the paw and allowances of cap
tain Of infantry. The incumbent is the
Rev Edward s. Travers. an Episcopalian
His predecessors have represented other
denominations. The first chaplain was
appointed in 1914 and conducted religious
services i'm the lecture rooms. In early
DAYS prayer and benediction were offered
i'm the open air at evening parade. but that
practice was abandoned during the civil
war.
The chapel was built in 1874. and is OF
classic design-a miniature basilica with
portito. Upon the walls within are many
trophies and a series of marble tablets
erected by Gen. Delafield, who was super
intendent from 1885 to 1861. over the
chancel is painting symbolical OF war
and Peace by the late Prof. Weir, who
taught drawing for many years at the
academy. In cases attached to the walls
are several notable battle flags, including
three Hessian and two British captured
during the revolutionary war ana tradl-
lion has il that they were presented by
Congress To George Washington
Few British Flags as Trophies.
Maj. John NJ. Carson. the quartermas-
ter in charge of the construction of the
new academy. has made these trophies
the subject of patient Investigation, and
he says:
The United States is one of but three
countries-FranCe and the Argentine Re
public are the others-that can display
British flags trophies of war. This
rarity adds to- the value of those in the
chapel at West Point. There is also i'm
the Naval Academy 1T Annapolis a royal
standard. said TO be the only one ever
taken from the British by an enemy. 1t
was captured April -, 1S1". from the
parliament house of Toronto by the COM
bined land and naval forces of the United
States under Gen. Pike and Commodore
Chauncey.
1T has been impossible TO ascertain
positively the particular organizations to
which the two British flags now at West
Point belonged. No known records give
the least information on this point. one
OF them bears the regimental number
VII and the insignia of the crown. rose
and garter i'm the center of the cross. is
that used by the 9Th Foot, or the Royal
But this regiment. though in America
from 1915 Until 1IS1, does not appear as
such on the return of CORVALLIS troops
for October I, 1IS1.
None of the regiments enumerated used
the insignia of the rose and garter. 1t is
probable that one of the batalions of in
fantry was made up of the Light Com
panies, as they were called then, OF TINS
9Th Regiment of the line, and carried a
standard bearing the regimental number
and insignia. l cannot see that any
other organization among those at York
town was entitled to carry such colors
Insignia Removed.
THE appearance of hole in the other
nag leads to the impression that the in
sigma has been cut out. Whether this
was done before it was surrendered or
subsequently, cannot he determined. Regi-
mental pride may have caused the re-
moval of this mark of identification, and
as Washington required that the haSs
should be cased when surrendered In re-
taliation for similar humiliation inflicted
upon the troops under Lincoln. who had
been compelled to surrender the year be-
fore at Charleston). such mutilation could
easily have escaped detection.
Both of these flags are royal coiors
corresponding to the national colors which
oll Of our regiments carry.
"During the war of the revolution.
continued Mai Carson. the Americans
captured some fifty flags or standards
from the British troops-twenty EIGHT in
Yorktown. fifteen at Trenton. five at
Fort Stanwix, and two in the south.
Strange as IL may appear. none were
taken from the troops which Burgoyne
surrendered at Saratoga, though large
quaint ties of cannon and small arms and
munitions of war were captured there.
IL is recorded that Burgonye informed
Gen. Gates that his regiments had left
their colors behind in Canada, or that
they had been burnt up
Eluf he Raj
accompanied her husband. Baron Won
Reid .sel one of the German American
officers. on this expedition. has stated in
her published memoirs that she saved
the German flags by hid ng them be-
meath the mattress of her bed. And il
has also been stated that Gen. Frazer.
an English officer, who was MORALLY
wounded at the second battle of Free
mans farm, October ., III. was buried
wrapped In a regimental standard.
Gen. Gates appears to have been so
overjoyed at accomplishing the capture of
Burgoyne's army that he granted very
liberal terms OF SURRENDERED liberal. in
fact that the Continental Congress was
subsequently compelled, as u matter of
protection to- the revolutionary cause. TO
repudiate one or two Of the articles of
capitulation.
Criticism of Burgoyne.
Historians have severely criticised
Burgoyne for his failure to surrender mis-
COlOrS anu STANDARDS at saratoga, WHlcn
the terms of the capitulation required. ac-
cordIng to the accepted laws of war
governing such cases. Nine. Reidssel
states in her memoirs: Now ! was forced
TO consider how i should safely carry the
coiors OF our German regiments still far
Their as We had made the Americans
believe at Saratoga that they had been
burnt uU,-a circumstance which they at
first took in bad part, though afterward
they tacitily overlooked il. But IL was
only tine slaves that had been burned the
Colors thus far having been concealed.
Now my husband confided to me
his secret, ana intrusted me with their
still further COncealment. | therefore
shut myself up with RICH. honorable
tailor. who helped me To make mat
Ircss in which sewed every one of
them. Capt O'COnnell. under pretense
OF some erTand. was dispatched to New
York and passed the mattress of as his
bed He sent IL To Halifax. where We
again found 1t on our passage from New
York To Canada. and wherein order to
oil i'm,