Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-06-15

still your flag as it is still our flag
the glorious emblem of peaceful and
prosperous people,
Martin Tells the Story
The story of how Pennsylvania
came to gather its matchless collec-
! tlon of battlefiags will be told this
afternoon at the exercises by Senator
FRANKLIN Martin, of West Fairview
chairman of the commission in charge
OF the transfer. The Senator has
| been identified with the movement
for fitting ceremony from the be-
ginning.
In his speech the Senator will say
in part:
why do we reverence and love the
Stars and Stripes? Because it repre-
| sentS our Government, our honor and
our firesides.
1t had its birth on the 4th of July
l1f6, when the Continental Congress
adopted a resolution declaring that
the thirteen original colonies are and
| of right ought to be free and inde-
pendent States and on the 18th of
June, l777, a resolution was passed
providing that the design of the flag
OF the United States of America should
contain thirteen red and white stripes
representing the thirteen original
colonies and as many stars in a field
of blue. On April 4, 1918, Congress
enacted further resolution provid-
ing that for each new State admitted
10 the Union new star should be
added to the flag.
AT the beginning of the Civil war,
April II. 1851, the flag contained "a
! stars and at the close of that contest
there were 36-West Virginia and
Nevada comign in during the war.
Battles Won and Battles Lost
On December 10, 1860, South Caro-
lima seeded and declared the Union
! dissolved; six other Southern States
soon followed. For a time it ap-
peared that Old GIory's starry field
would be rent asunder. The Boys in
Blue were called out, and willingly
did they respond. Battles We're won
and lost-the Stars and Stripes were
tattered and torn and drenched in the
blood of thousands of fallen heroes
But the flag came out of that long
and memorable struggle without the
loss OF a single star. On April 8, 1865.
Lee surrendered to Grant at Apo
mattoX and on April II, four years
| TO the day from the firing on Sumpter
General Anderson raised the Stars
and Stripes again over the rampartG
or that same fort, The wounds of
that conflict have long since healed
over. When war with Spain was de-
clared in 1898 there was an equal and
| loval response from North, South.
East and West, but all under the same
nag. The fiftieth anniversary of the
Battle of Gettysburg in July, 1913.
was as great in historical Significance
as the battle in 1868. Just fifty years
from the day Pickett made his famous
charge, the survivors of the contend
| ing armies stood upon that same hal
lowed ground and with tear-dimmed
! eyes the Blue and the Gray clasped
hands in everlasting fealty and al
legiance to that glorious banner, the
flag of our Union.
"On May I5, 1865, after the close of
tne war; the War Department at
washington ordered that the flags be
restored to the custody of the States.
Pennsylvania had many regiments en-
gagged in the war and extensive prepa- =
rations were made to hold appropriate
ceremonies for the transfer of the
flags at Independence Hall, Philadel-
phia, July 4, 1865. General Harry
White was chairman, General George
G. Meade made the presentation
speech, and our great War Governor.
the Honorable Andrew G. Curtin,
made the address of acceptance. A
shaled by Geenral Winfield S. Han
cock and vast multitude of patriotic
citizens participated in celebrating the
occasion of the transfer of PennsyI-
vania's flags.
Some Present Today
Some of the Boys in Blue who
carried the colors on that day are
| present to-day and carrying the same
| flags. The flags were shipped to Har-
! risburg and were placed in a room
in the State Capitol. In 1893 on ac-
count of extensive repairs to the Can
| itol building the flags were moved
to the State Arsenal, and later thev
were brought back and placed in what
was known as the flag room in the
east wing of the Capitol and in Ian
uary, 1895, few days before the close
of Governor Pattison's second term.
| they were moved without any cere-
monies to the State Library Museum
fortunate to escape destruction when
the Capitol building burned on Feb
ruary 2, 1897, and from the Library
Museum they are being transferred
to-day to the rotunda of the CAPITOL.
I'm the transfer we have 322 fiars
from the Civil War. twenty-five from
the Spanish war. six unknown flags
one 1912 flag and the Lincoln GettJs-
burg flag, a total of 352.
fThese torn and tattered battle-rent
emblems of national pride need no
eulogy. their history is written In .Ie
| blood Of Pennsylvania's loyal sons who
fought and died for the preservation