Gilbert Bates Gilbert Henderson Bates ( February 13 , 1836 – February 17 , 1917 ) was an American soldier best known for his peaceful postwar marches , first throughout the American South and through England . For each endeavor , Bates wanted to prove that he would be treated cordially in regions supposedly hostile to Americans and found himself warmly welcomed by the natives . American South March . Before the American Civil War , Bates was a farmer in the town of Albion , near Edgerton , Wisconsin . During the war , he served as a Sergeant in the 1st Wisconsin Heavy Artillery Regiment . After the war , he returned to his farm . In November 1867 , during the period known as Reconstruction , Bates had a conversation about the South with a neighbor , who said , " Sergeant , the Southerners are rebels yet . They are worse now than they were during the war . They hate the Union flag . No man dare show that flag anywhere in the South except in the presence of our soldiers . " Bates replied , " You are mistaken . I can carry that flag myself from the Mississippi all over the rebel States , alone and unarmed , too . " Thus began his march , reported at the time in numerous local and national newspapers , but now largely forgotten . On February 27 , 1868 , Mark Twain published the following in the " Territorial Enterprise " : Sergeant Gilbert H . Bates of Wisconsin is the last candidate for pedestrian notoriety . He has made a bet that he will walk , alone , unarmed , and without a cent in his pocket , and bearing aloft the American flag , through the late Southern Confederacy , from Vicksburg to Washington . He is already on his way , and the telegraph is noting his progress . The Mayor and a large portion of the population of Vicksburg ushered him out of that city with a grand demonstration . He proposes to sell photographs of himself at 25 cent apiece , all along his route , and convert the proceeds into a fund to be devoted to the aid and comfort of widows and orphans of soldiers who fought in the late war , irrespective of flag or politics . And then , I suppose , when he gets a good round sum together for the widows and orphans , he will hang up his flag and go and have a champagne blow - out . I don ' t believe in people who collect money for benevolent purposes and don ' t charge for it . I don ' t have full confidence in people who walk a thousand miles for the benefit of widows and orphans and don ' t get a cent for it . I question the uprightness of people who peddle their own photographs , anyhow , whether they carry flags or not . In my opinion a man might as well start his name with an initial and spell his middle name out and hope to be virtuous . But this fellow will get more black eyes , down there among those unreconstructed rebels than he can ever carry along with him without breaking his back . I expect to see him coming into Washington some day on one leg and with one eye out and an arm gone . He won ' t amount to more than an interesting relic by the time he gets here and then he will have to hire out for a sign for the Anatomical Museum . Those fellows down there have no sentiment in them . They won ' t buy his picture . They will be more likely to take his scalp . Bates won his bet . During a three - month " march " which started in Vicksburg where he was welcomed by the mayor , he walked 1400 miles across Mississippi , Alabama , Georgia , South Carolina , North Carolina and Virginia to Washington , carrying the Stars and Stripes , and he was granted hospitality all along the way . He recorded his journey in a pamphlet published in June 1868 titled " The Triumphal March of Sergeant Bates from Vicksburg to Washington " . In an irony of the times , although he was allowed to raise his flag over numerous official buildings in the South , including the state Capitol in Richmond , he was not granted permission to fly it at the Capitol in Washington . British march . Later a wealthy friend of Bates ' s wagered $ 1 , 000 against $ 100 that Bates could not march the length of England carrying the Stars and Stripes without being insulted . This was due to the idea that many English supported the Confederacy during the Civil War because of cotton exports . On Nov . 5 , 1872 Bates , in full military uniform , began a 400 mile march from the Scottish border to London . Throughout his travels in England he was overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and kindness of the villagers . Hoteliers refused to let him pay ; people fought to feed him . By the end of November he had reached London , but the crowds were so great he had to be driven in an open carriage to the Guildhall , where he ceremoniously hung the unsullied Stars and Stripes next to the Union Jack . Upon reaching London , Bates telegrammed his friend , " Cancel wager . I regard this mission as something finer than a matter of money . " Artistic depiction . In September 2003 a dramatization of Bates ' s story titled " The Saga of Sergeant Bates : the Most Sensational March in American History " , by John Nicholas Schweitzer , was commissioned by John Vorndran and produced for the Edgerton ( Wisconsin ) bicentennial .