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"The Battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862" by Carl Rochling depicts Col. Charles H. T. Collis leading his 114th Pennsylvania Zouaves forward on what is now known as the Slaughter Pen Farm portion of the battlefield.
(Public Domain)
Introduction
During the Battle of Fredericksburg, the 21st Massachusetts Infantry of Edward Ferrero’s Ninth Corps brigade moved toward the Confederate line at the base of Marye’s Heights. When they cleared the streets of Fredericksburg and were well within the range of the Rebels’ rifle fire, Color Sgt. Joseph H. Collins received a mortal wound to his left thigh. Collins fell, dropping the regiment’s national colors. Quickly, however, Sgt. Thomas Plunkett snatched up the colors and carried them forward, leading the regiment toward the enemy’s lines. As the 21st Massachusetts attempted to maneuver to get in some shots at the ensconced Confederates, an artillery shell aimed at the unit’s flag fell with incredible accuracy. The shell took off both arms of Sgt. Plunkett, and again the colors fell, “wet with the bearer’s blood.” Pvt. Bradley L. Olney of Company H immediately seized the flag and carried it through the remainder of the fight, somehow avoiding being hit. In addition to the ordeal faced by those who carried the national colors, Corp. Elbridge Barr, who held the regiment’s state colors, was shot and mortally wounded. Fully realizing the danger, but yet willing to take the risk, Corp. Richard Wheeler wrested the flagstaff from Barr’s hands and claimed the hazardous post of honor.
Sgt. Thomas Plunkett received the Medal of Honor for courageously carrying his regiment's national colors at Fredericksburg where he lost both arms.
(Library of Congress)
Scenes like that described above played out time and time again on the battlefields of central Virginia. Some, like Sgt. Plunkett’s sacrifice, were rewarded with Medals of Honor. Others received mention in officers’ reports or comrades’ letters, journals, and diaries. Yet others, probably due to perceived notions of a soldier’s duty and thus the expectedness of such actions, sadly received no mention at all.
It is difficult for us in the 21st century to fully understand the importance that those of the past placed on battlefield flags. Throughout history flags have symbolized individuals, religions, and of course, represented national pride. Flags have the unique ability to convey a shared purpose or struggle. Since ancient times, banners, flags, and colors have been carried by military units for identity. They affirm group distinctiveness, help create solidarity, and inspire unity. During the Civil War, national and regimental flags built pride, stoked morale, and served to represent the group’s honor.
Images and items adorned with flags and color bearers, like these envelopes, were popular choices to express one's patriotism on the frontlines and the home front during the Civil War.
(Library of Congress)
Civil War regiments, both North and South, often held sendoff ceremonies upon departing from their home communities. Occurring particularly early in the war, a presentation of the colors—usually crafted by the local town or county women where the unit was raised—was central to these events. These occasions also often included patriotic speeches, band music, and other shows of community support; all in an effort to reinforce the importance of the colors to the men who would fight beneath them.
A regiment’s color guard, normally made up of non-commissioned officers, protected the flag. To carry the flag was a post of honor, but often a deadly one. Enemy soldiers targeted flag bearers to disrupt the continuity of the enemy’s battle line and demoralize the foe. The unit's flag was always held in great reverence, as a regiment's honor was displayed in, and often on, its flag. Battle names sometimes graced the regimental or national colors to show that the unit had been in the thick of the fight and had performed bravely. Of course, the entire regiment was disgraced if its colors were lost in battle.
As previously mentioned, Union soldiers who captured enemy colors or saved their own unit's flag from the enemy often received recognition; some became recipients of the Medal of Honor. In fact, a large proportion of the soldiers who received Medals of Honor during the Civil War did so for actions involving colors.
This CVBT History Wire will share a number of accounts involving colors and color bearers at the Battle of Fredericksburg and during the Chancellorsville Campaign. A follow-up post will do the same for the Mine Run Campaign, the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania Court House.
The Battle of Fredericksburg
"The Battle of Fredericksburg, VA, Dec. 13, 1862"
by Currier and Ives
(Library of Congress)
Perhaps due to the nature of the combat at the Battle of Fredericksburg, with the Confederates fighting primarily on the defensive, their accounts involving colors seem to appear less frequently. However, there are some mentions by them watching the spectacle of the Union assaults, and in doing so, noting the flags. One example comes from Capt. Thomas Henry Carter, who commanded a Confederate artillery battery on the south end of the battlefield. In a letter to his wife written four days after the fight, Carter explained that his battery was initially in reserve, occupying defensive high ground in a wooded area. To reach the Confederate lines, the Federal forces who occupied the “flats in front of Mr. Bernard’s house [Mannsfield],” had to traverse the open ground with only the protection of a few “ditch banks.” However, Carter also noted that there was little to no artillery in the center of that part of their line. “This was our weak point and they [Federals] knew it,” he penned. “Their troops were drawn up all along our front, about 1000 yds to the front line.” Carter explained “They made a feint at our right after some maneuvering & then formed in six or seven lines opposite our centre & charged. The whole scene was grand. Their troops superbly drilled, coming on with flying colors & marched boldly across the plains to the woods & gained it notwithstanding the fire of artillery.”
From his position near the center of the Confederate line, Capt. Matthew Nunnally of the 11th Georgia Infantry had a good view of the actions at Marye’s Heights as well as those to the south at Slaughter Pen Farm. He wrote to his sister and brother-in-law soon after the battle describing his view of the fight below Marye’s Heights: “I saw as many as three Yankee lines advance slowly and steadily with colors flying and in beautiful battle array. . . . Soon our brave boys told them where the Rocks of Gibraltar were; our artillery ploughed through their ranks cutting down whole platoons at a single shot, our musketry killed them by the hundreds. I saw Commanders of Regts. and Brigades with dashing steeds and waving sabres leading their command onward. I saw horses run out riderless, and lastly, though not with colors flying, I saw the last line in retreat pass out of sight.”
"Fredericksburg"
(A Life of Robert E. Lee by John Esten Cooke, published in 1883)
Fighting on the north end of the battlefield, William Cowan McClellan of the 9th Alabama, wrote a letter to his father describing not only what he saw, but also what he heard. McClellan penned, “Our men heard the Col of the 49th N[ew] York Reg[iment] Say men will you charge again. all silent. Says he[,] I will carry the Flag from one end of the line to the other. Our boys looked at each other and smiled, now we will give it to them Boys. aim low; down goes the Brave Col. and his colors, men begin to fall thick and fast now.
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Perhaps the most notable personality among the Medal of Honor recipients at the Battle of Fredericksburg was Col. Charles H. T. Collis, who led the 114th Pennsylvania Infantry, a Zouave regiment. (Collis and his regiment are depicted in this post’s header image.) Fighting in John C. Robinson’s Third Corps brigade on the Slaughter Pen Farm portion of the battlefield, Collis and his regiment entered the fray to thwart a Confederate counterattack. Many of his soldiers were experiencing their baptism under fire and most were stunned at the destruction happening around them, including seeing Gen. Robinson’s horse being torn to pieces by a cannon ball and in turn toppling Robinson. In an attempt to steady and inspire his men, Col. Collis grabbed the regiment’s flag, rode to the center of its front holding the regimental standard aloft, and yelled, “Remember the stone wall at Middletown!;” where Collis and some of his men had fought in the Shenandoah Valley in the spring of 1862. Roused to the moment, the 114th linked with other units and pushed ahead.
During the 9th New Hampshire Infantry’s movement toward Marye’s Heights, they ran into several obstacles including fences and ditches that caused some of the companies to separate. While maneuvering through these a piece of shell hit Sgt. [Edgar] Dinsmore in the left chest, mortally wounding him and causing him to fall on the national colors. Several of the color guard were also killed. Without hesitation, Lt. Charles D. Copp pulled the flag from under Dinsmore, and calling “Forward, boys forward!” carried the flag up to the front lines. Copp received the Medal of Honor for his courageous act.
Lt. Charles D. Copp, 9th New Hampshire Infantry, received the Medal of Honor at Fredericksburg where he "Seized the regimental colors, the color bearer having been shot down, and, waving them,
rallied the regiment under a heavy fire."
(History of the Ninth Regiment New Hampshire Volunteers, edited by Edward O. Lord, 1895)
Later, when Gen. Andrew Humphrey’s division attacked Marye's Heights, Col. Jacob Frick’s, 129th Pennsylvania Infantry, a nine-month regiment, endured about 30 percent casualties. Frick led by example in their effort. He was hit in the thigh and ear by shell fragments. In addition, a shell hit a horse standing beside him and the explosion covered him in the animal’s gore. During the assault, the regiment’s color bearer was wounded but Frick took up the colors and charged forward. The Confederates in his front concentrated their fire on him and shot the flag’s staff in two near Frick’s head causing the flag to drape across his shoulders. Disregarding the danger, the colonel continued to lead his men through the bedlam of the battle.
"Gallant Charge of Humphrey's Division at the Battle of Fredericksburg"
Sketched by Alfred R. Waud and originally published in Harper's Weekly, January 10, 1863.
(Library of Congress)
Unlike the more mature Col. Frick, youthful enthusiasm probably played a part in Pvt. George Sidman’s Fredericksburg colors moment. Only 18 years old and serving in the 16th Michigan Infantry, Sidman had already distinguished himself for bravery when wounded at the Battle of Gaines’ Mill, for which he would eventually receive the Medal of Honor. Sidman’s battlefield heroics continued at Fredericksburg. When his regiment was requested to offer up a volunteer to carry the new brigade flag, Sidman eagerly stepped forward for the dangerous duty. Sidman’s past performance in battle helped Col. Thomas Stockton, the brigade commander, make the choice. Sidman led the brigade and although wounded again, carried the colors to within 150 yards of the Confederate line and stayed there with its shattered staff and pierced folds until withdrawn by order.
As indicated by these last couple of accounts, flagstaffs and flags were often abused by the fury of lead and iron in battle. The 4th Vermont Infantry’s Lt. William Henry Martin, whose unit lost over fifty soldiers on the skirmish line, wrote to his family shortly after the battle explaining: “You will see our account of it in the papers. Our flag was torn into threads, the eagle shot off & the flag ridled by bulets. The Colnel intends sending it home to the Govner.”
English immigrant Pvt. Philip Petty, 136th Pennsylvania Infantry received the Medal of Honor for his willingness to carry the colors at Fredericksburg.
(Deeds of Valor: How America’s Civil War Heroes Won the Congressional Medal of Honor by W. F. Beyer and O. F. Keydel, 1903)
At least three Federal soldiers who were immigrants received Medals of Honor for their heroic flag deeds at Fredericksburg. During the battle, the 136th Pennsylvania, a nine-month regiment and part of Col. Peter Lyle’s Brigade, John Gibbon’s Division in the First Corps fought on the south end of the battlefield. There they engaged with Gen. James Lane’s North Carolina brigade and endured fire from Confederate artillery to their right front. Pvt. Philip Petty, an English immigrant, described the situation: “the color bearer being wounded, the colonel called at once for someone to carry the fallen colors.” When no one else answered the call, Petty did “and carried them in the advance. . . .” He went just past the [Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac] railroad tracks where he “planted the flagstaff in the ground and fired about thirty rounds into the rebels. . . .” Petty’s inspiring performance elicited cheers from his regiment.
(Pvt. Petty image)
Also fighting in Col. Lyle’s brigade, Pvt. Martin Schubert of the 26th New York Infantry did not even need to be in the battle. He had obtained a furlough to go home and heal his Antietam wound. Instead, Pvt. Schubert, a native of Germany, decided to pocket his ticket home and join his comrades at Fredericksburg, where he received another wound. Later when asked why he stayed and fought, Schubert simply but profoundly replied, “I thought that the government needed me there.” In recognition of his bravery, Schubert received the Medal of Honor in 1863. His citation reads: “Relinquished a furlough granted for wounds, entered the battle, where he picked up the colors after several bearers had been killed or wounded, and carried them until himself again wounded.” One of Schubert’s comrades in the 26th New York, Pvt. Joseph Keene, who was born in England, became the regiment’s last color bearer during the battle. His Medal of Honor citation reads: “Voluntarily seized the colors after several color bearers had been shot down and led the regiment in the charge.” Keen, who was serving a two-year enlistment, later received a promotion to corporal and mustered out in 1863. Apparently, wanting to see the war through to its conclusion, he reenlisted a month later in the 3rd New York Light Artillery and served with it to the end of the war.
The Chancellorsville Campaign
"Rebel prisoners and battle flags captured at Chancellorsville, being taken to the rear by cavalry and infantry guards."
Sketched by Edwin Forbes
(Library of Congress)
The fighting at Chancellorsville, Second Fredericksburg, and Salem Church produced numerous instances in which colors and color bearers received mention.
Sometimes, becoming a color bearer came by way of unexpected circumstances. For example, during the Battle of Chancellorsville, Corp. Andrew Proffit, 18th North Carolina Infantry, apparently became a flag bearer for the regiment by happenstance. He described how he found himself in the honorable but unenviable position in a May 15, 1863, letter to his father. “On Saturday night [May 2] there fell a bomb in my company & exploded [with]in 4 or 5 feet of me & wounded the flag bearer and five or six of my co[mpany] taking off one mans leg & wounded my lieutenant. When the flag of my country fell to the earth I grabbed it with my own hands. My colonel told me to throw down my gear and hold on to my flag which I did,” Proffit wrote. However, Corp. Proffit’s time as standard bearer was brief. On May 3, in the severe back and forth fighting, Proffit became trapped. “I lay there with two lines of battle cross fireing at me at a short distance & three batteries throwing grape at me not more than 3 or 4 hundred yards distant. The first I knew the yanks were in five steps when two jumped over the breast works & grabbed the flag out of my hand & said to me fall in John ha ha ha. John fell in but did not like to do it,” Proffit explained. The 7th New Jersey was Proffit’s and the flag’s captor.
Col. Louis Francine, 7th New Jersey, made his after-battle report on May 7, which covered his regiment’s combat on May 3 and included the capture of the 18th North Carolina’s flag, among others: “After a short time, my regiment advanced into the woods in front of the breastworks, and, by maintaining a flanking position under a very heavy fire for over three hours, captured five stands of colors and over 300 prisoners, among the latter 1 colonel, 1 major, and several line officers. The colors were taken from the Twenty-first Virginia, Eighteenth North Carolina, First Louisiana, Second North Carolina, and the fifth from some Alabama regiment. The Second North Carolina Regiment was captured almost in toto.” Col. Francine added, “It would be impossible for me to single out individual cases of courage where all of my officers and men behaved with such gallantry and discretion. The trophies they took from the enemy speak more eloquently for their actions than any words I might use.”
Commander of the Eleventh Corps, Maj. Gen. O. O. Howard attempted to rally his retreating soldiers by hoisting the colors on May 2, 1863, near Dowdall's Tavern.
(Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. 3, 1887)
In battle, desperate times sometimes called for desperate measures. As we saw in our discussion about Fredericksburg, it was not uncommon for an officer to become a flag bearer in an attempt to rally troops. In the chaos of the May 2nd flank attack by Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson’s force on the Eleventh Corps., corps commander Maj. Gen. Oliver Otis Howard attempted to stem the tide. Lt. Frederick Otto Von Fritsch, a staff officer for Brig. Gen. Alexander Schimmelfennig, recalled, “Just in front of Dowdall’s [Tavern] I noticed General Howard holding a flag under his arm and shouting: ‘Rally round the flag; rally round the flag!’ Mechanically I drew my sword and stopped some of the men coming up the road, but my voice gave out and I felt a new and fearful pain in my stomach.”
Lt. Theodore Dodge, 119th New York Infantry, an Eleventh Corps regiment, noted in his journal his inability to rally his troops around the flag during the retreat. Dodge wrote, “They broke and retreated by Companies, slowly though not in good order. Rally them we could not. Poor Colonel [Elias] Peissner had received his death wound and fell waving his sword. The Lieut Col.’s horse had been shot under him, ditto mine, which reared and threw me, falling heavily on me. I got a little group around the colors, but when the boys who had never been under fire before saw others running, they could not be kept together.”
Fighting during some of the Chancellorsville Campaign’s engagements raged within in close confines. Some of these resulted in captured soldiers and flags. During the May 1 fighting and battling on the left of the 7th U.S. Infantry, the 10th U.S. captured 27 prisoners including an officer. According to Lt. Edward Bush, Sgt. John Crotty, the 10th’s flag-bearer, “distinguished himself by his soldierly conduct under fire and capturing one of the enemy.” The 10th U.S. lost 12 men wounded.
Corp. John Young, 14th U.S. Infantry, told his wife Rosetta in a May 16, 1863, letter about his experiences on May 1: “The first shell that the rebels throwed killed one man on my left, the third man from me. He was in the ranks and I was the file closer. Well I thought all the side of my head was gone, there was a piece of shell went so close to my ear, but it did not touch me, and I thank the Lord for it. Well the shells fell all around us for a while. One cut one of our color-guards right square in two and killed three more. We never heard it till it struck. It looked hard to see our men fall so fast.” Color bearers in Sykes’ Division had a rough day on May 1. The 7th U.S. Infantry fought along the north side of the Orange Turnpike. The battalion suffered two killed, nine wounded, and five missing in the action. Corp. Stephen C. O’Neill received special mention from Capt. David Hancock in his after-action report. Hancock noted, “when the color-bearer was shot down, [O’Neill] gallantly picked [the colors] from his hands, and bore them during the remainder of the engagement.” O’Neill later received the Medal of Honor for his heroism.
"Battle of Chancellorsville, VA, May 3rd, 1863" by Currier and Ives.
(Library of Congress)
Regiments that lost their flags in battle sometimes felt an obligation to explain what happened. Col. Samuel E. Baker of the 16th Mississippi Infantry noted in his report following Chancellorsville that “The color-bearer was severely wounded and the flag-staff shot in two near the colors a short time after we got into the enemy’s trenches. The colors were then passed to Color Corporal W. M. Wadsworth, who was shortly afterward wounded in the leg and who in turn passed these colors to Corporal W. J. Sweeney, who came to me as we were following the enemy and reported that he had the colors safe. Soon after this the enemy opened on us with a destructive fire of grape when Corporal Sweeney was wounded and borne to the rear, taking the colors with him.” Baker wrote that Sweeney was sent to Richmond for medical attention and therefore he was “unable at present to state what became of the colors.” Baker also noted that he heard a member of their brigade had died at a field hospital who was “wrapped in a battle-flag and think it not unlikely it may have been the one belonging to my regiment; and, as my regimental colors had no letters or distinguishing marks upon them, it would be impossible to identify them. By the time Corporal Sweeney was wounded . . . the whole of my color guard had been disabled with wounds more or less severe. One of them has since died, and the color-bearer had his left arm amputated. My center companies also were severely cut to pieces, and to these facts and these alone, I attribute the loss of the battle-flag of my regiment. . . .” Corp. Harry Lewis of the same regiment echoed his colonel’s sentiments in describing the dangers of the color bearers in a letter to mother on May 7, 1863: “All the color guard were shot down. There were five of them, two of them were killed, one mortally wounded and one slightly. The sergeant charged over the works with his flag in his hand and commenced knocking the Yanks over the head with the staff, which was shot in two and himself was shot in the arm which afterward was amputated. . . .”
Not all attempts to take prisoners or capture flags were successful. Confederate Gen. Willam Dorsey Pender, noted in his report that on May 3, the 13th North Carolina’s Corp. Monroe Robinson “chased a [Federal] color-bearer so closely that [the color bearer] tore off the colors, and threw down the staff, which was secured.”
Heavy Confederate attacks against Federal infantry and artillery at Chancellorsville eventually succeeded in gaining the field and winning the battle. However, it cost a high price in casualties and lost colors.
(Tim Talbott)
At Chancellorsville, infantry and artillery worked together on at least in one occasion to capture flags of the enemy. Capt. Thomas Ward Osborn, who served as the Chief of Artillery for the 2nd Division, 3rd Corps, wrote five days after the terrible battle of May 3 that “Just before the last charge of the Jersey brigade, in front of my battery, the enemy came down the slope in solid masses covering, as it were, the whole ground in front of our line, and with at least a dozen stand of colors flying in their midst. I ordered the guns loaded with solid shot as our line fell back and wheeled to the left, unmasking the battery, I fired at one and a half degrees elevation. The effects were remarkable. A few rounds threw them into great confusion and drove them up the hill whereupon our infantry again charged and took several stand of colors.” However, "In a few moments, the enemy planted their colors in the road 100 yards to my right and on my flank and with their sharpshooters were busy in picking off my men and horses.” Then, “When about 20 had gathered about the colors, I turned my guns with canister upon them and drove them back. This was several times repeated.”
Col. William Sewell, of the 5th New Jersey, who was commanding the Third (also known as the Second New Jersey) Brigade on May 3, after Brig. Gen. Gersham Mott was wounded, reported, “It has been the fortune of this brigade to have participated in many hard-fought actions, but former experience was nothing in comparison to the determination of the enemy to carry this position. Battalion after battalion was hurled against our ranks, each one to lose its colors and many of its men taken prisoners. The Seventh New Jersey here took five of the enemy’s colors; the Fifth New Jersey took three. The brigade took at least 1,000 prisoners.”
Col. Alexander Shaler rallied his brigade at Second Fredericksburg by leading with the colors.
Shaler later received the Medal of Honor.
(Deeds of Valor: How America’s Civil War Heroes Won the Congressional Medal of Honor
by W. F. Beyer and O. F. Keydel, 1903)
Numerous mentions of colors also came from the men of the Sixth Corps battling at both Second Fredericksburg and Salem Church on May 3. William Mackenzie Thompson of the 15th New Jersey wrote to the Hunterdon Republican newspaper on May 18, 1863, about Second Fredericksburg: “During all this time the firing from our batteries on the right was terrific, and they had succeeded in driving the enemy from their redoubts and rifle-pits in the rear of Fredericksburg. Our troops were marching up the Heights, taking possession of their works, driving the Rebels before them. Still they advance with the ‘Flag of our Union’ flying in the breeze, and before the enemy can secure their artillery drive them from their works and take the battery as a prize.”
Col. Alexander Shaler of the 65th New York, who commanded a brigade at Second Fredericksburg, performed an act of heroism that earned him the Medal of Honor. After Col. George C. Spear of the 61st Pennsylvania Infantry fell mortally wounded assaulting Marye’s Heights on May 3, 1863, it demoralized the attackers. “Seeing this, Colonel Shaler caught up the standard of the regiment, rushed forward, calling upon the two regiments of his brigade to follow him, forced the passage, advanced up the hill and captured two guns, one officer and a few men of the Washington Battery of artillery, New Orleans, posted in a redoubt on the right of the road. The other regiments of this brigade, soon after greeted him within the enemy’s works with cheers and congratulations. His men had not expected to again see him alive.”
Among the Federal regiments that mentioned colors and color bearers at Salem Church was the 15th New Jersey Infantry. Their monument at Salem Church is shown here.
(Tim Talbott)
Fellow Sixth Corps soldier Capt. John S. Kidder of the 121st New York explained in a May 4, 1863, letter to his wife about May 3 at Second Fredericksburg: “On Saturday night we prepared to storm the heights above the city, started at 2 o’clock in the morning [on] Sunday. Our regiment supported the left while some of the Vermont and New Jersey with the 43rd New York carried the heights and the U.S. flag was planted in their forts by eleven o’clock A.M.” In the same letter Capt. Kidder shared some thoughts about the fight at Salem Church: “There were about 75 men of our Regt. and the Major of the 96th Pennsylvania with 15 of his men that rallied around our colors and succeeded in driving back the Rebels into the woods. The 2nd line of battle that was back of us did not support us properly and, if it had not been for our Col. [Emory Upton] with his band of 75 men (for I think that there was not more than that number), it would have been a roust.” Kidder included that “Capt. [Andrew E.] Mather was wounded in the shoulder but he stood by the colors until dark.”
Capt. Kidder’s 121st New York comrade, Sgt. William Remmel had a similar story. Remmel wrote two days after Salem Church explaining that “The regiments all fought well, until the ranks were killed almost half, when they were driven back by the rebs about ½ mile. Our regiment then rallied around the flag and our brave Colonel [Upton], and we soon drove them back to their holes, with the assistance of the artillery. When we rallied around our flag, there could not have been more than 100 men out of the regiment together.”
Another Sixth Corps regiment that saw hard fighting at Salem Church was the 15th New Jersey Infantry. In their regimental history, Chaplain Alanson Haines wrote that “David Eugene Hicks, Company A, was our First Color Sergeant. When the color guard was selected, he was chosen for his fine soldierly qualities to be the standard-bearer. He was a tall, noble-looking young man, and had endeared himself by his generosity and courage to all who knew him. When the order to advance was given, as we charged into the woods, he sprang forward at once, carrying his colors straight on until a bullet pierced his brain, and he fell clasping them in his hands. Corporal Samuel Rubadon seized the fallen flag and carried it forward through the rest of the fight."
At Salem Church, Corp. Edward Browne, 62nd New York, remained with the colors despite being wounded.
(Deeds of Valor: How America’s Civil War Heroes Won the Congressional Medal of Honor by W. F. Beyer and O. F. Keydel, 1903)
The 62nd New York’s Corp. Edward Browne received the Medal of Honor for his actions at Salem Church. He remembered the hard-fought battle: “Suddenly our boys came in hurried retreat from the woods, followed by the enemy in good form. I was at that time in front of the line waving the colors, when, on turning to the right, I observed a line of the enemy emerging from a belt of woods in that direction, and called the colonel’s attention to it. At the same time I was wounded in the side. The colonel noticed that I had been hit, and suggested my retirement to the rear. But they boys were coming across the open field between the woods and our line, and I remained with the colors open so that they might know they had something to rally about, and to show the enemy that we were not in a panic. I remained at my post until the boys had crossed the open and were within our lines, and the enemy had been brought to a halt by our fire.”
Pvt. William Stilwell’s 53rd Georgia Infantry, which served in Gen. Paul Semmes brigade, wrote a letter to his wife Molly two days later about Salem Church. He explained that “Our brigade covered itself with glory, they whipped a whole corps of Yankees, the noble 53rd captured two stands of colors, one national flag and a white flag they raised to deceive our men, pretending that they had surrendered, but our regiment shot down their flag bearer and took the white flag.”
Conclusion
Unknown Federal soldier, and Sgt. William Crawford Smith, 12th Virginia Infantry.
(Library of Congress)
Flags played crucial roles in Civil War combat. Not only were they an inspiring symbolic representation of the regiment or brigade that carried them, but they also served practical purposes as visible battle line markers and rally points. Those who carried the colors did so knowing that it was a hazardous but respected position, and as many of the accounts above show, soldiers held their unit colors in high esteem. Courageous acts involving flags usually drew a significant amount of attention, respect, and recognition.
In the next CVBT History Wire, we will share additional accounts of colors and color bearers during the Mine Run Campaign, at the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania.
Some Sources and Suggested Reading
F. Beyer and O. F. Keydel. Deeds of Valor: How America’s Civil War Heroes Won the Congressional Medal of Honor. Smithmark Publishing, 2000 (reprint of 1903 version).
Robert F. Bonner. Colors and Blood: Flag Passions of the Confederate South. Princeton University Press, 2002.
John M. Coski. The Confederate Battle Flag: America’s Most Embattled Emblem. Harvard University Press, 2005.
Col. Francis Marion Parker, 30th North Carolina Infantry
(Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina, Vol. II, edited by Walter Clark, 1901)
“I noticed the colour bearer of one of our Regts. lying cold, the top of his flag staff shot away, but the gallant fellow was grasping the part which was left, with both hands. I called my own colour bearer to witness the scene. Poor fellow, it was not long before he too was shot down, and has since had a leg amputated. A second man took the flag, he too was struck down; but not killed; the third one bore it safely through the remainder of the day, but ran a narrow risk, he had a ball put through the top of his hat.”
Col. Francis Marion Parker, 30th North Carolina Infantry, in a May 9, 1863, letter to his wife.
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