Show Ir ESERVJONOf HISTORIC RELCS I Shameful Neglect by tHe Government of Trophies S of 1 ValorBattle Flags Left to ot f j I I may not be generally known that j the president pt the United States is t invested with authority to receive from I the army and navy all flags standards I and colors captured from the enemy i and under his direction to be preserved and displayed in such places as he may deem proper But little attention appears ap-pears to have been paid to the law governing gov-erning the preservation of such national j nation-al 1 relics but with carelessness and indifference in-difference and utter lack of patriotism many a far and banner won on bloody fields carrying with it daring intro pedity and In many instances the lifeblood I life-blood of defender and captor have cpor I been cast aside to mould and rot with and with moth and dampness neglect wih ant dust to complete the work I On the continent such trophies are viewed with a different spirit and invested I In-vested with dignity and sentiment well j 1 calculated to develop In the masses the highest enthusiasm With what careEn I care-En land France Germany and the European nations generally guard and jealously preserve all such trophies I I requires but a passing glance at the malls and niches of their various military tat Institutes hospitals and palaces A few of the flags captured from the British In the war of 1812 found their way to the military academy a large number were destroyed when the war department building was burned with its records In 1S14 but as regards the flags taken in the war of the rebellion the same neglect overwhelms the greater nee has been the result of destroying many valuable and historic relics From 1SC2 to the close of the war the generals commanding armies of the TTnittxi stnifixs sent to the war depart ment flags that were captured In battle bat-tle or received on surrender Of the whole number thus captured and deposited de-posited with the department 236 were United States flags originally captured by the confederates and recaptured from them and 544 were confederte flags taken by the United States forces making a total of 780 in the custody of 1 the war department When received they were deposited in a vacant attic of a building on Seventeenth Seven-teenth street Washington then occupied occu-pied by clerks of the adjutant generals office and there remained until the year 1867 During that year the superintendent super-intendent of the buildings then occupied occu-pied by the war department had them removed to his office where a few were place upon the walls and the remainder remain-der laid upon shelves In 1S74 a portion of the flags were removed and exhibited in the ordnance museum In Winders onnance building In October 1882 all the flags were by direction of the secretary of war boxed and stored In 3 room in the I subbasement of the new state war and navy building where they remained re-mained until January 1887 I was I while the flags had resting place In the shabby house formerly occupied by I the clerks of the adjutant generals of flee that the writer had occasion to look over the mass of bunting there I collected The walls were covered with tattered remnants of the flags The I I ceiling and windows were fantastically festooned while hundreds were pigeonholed pigeon-holed and only saw the light of day when unrolled for the gratification of I some curious weatherbeaten veteran The front room contained the flags I by the confederates captured from our army I federates and were in every degree oft of-t condition from the battle tattered remnant I nant the motheaten and others in a I I fairly good state of preservation Most of all these were recaptured at the fall of Richmond where they were found In the war office of that city The A iorthern states were all represented by r I stripes of bunting on which were emblazoned em-blazoned the coat of arms belonging to 1 the respective states There was one pennant prominently displayed possessing more than usual interest I was General Sheridans staff flag torn bullet riddled defaced Has I and discolored The flag was lost in the Shenandoah valley when Phil I was temporarily absent In Washington Washing-ton Then followed the famous ride the change of the rout into an army I filled with confidence and enthusiasm and the result has been recorded on the pages of history and emblazoned in historic verses Wrapped around a staff In close proximity to Sheridans pennant Is I the banner of an Ohio regl mant bearing upon Its faded and dust laden folds the records of 45 battles and varied experience What a strange varlet that expanse of bunting must have had what scenes of daring carnage and horror had been enacted beneath Its rustling expanse On the four remaining remain-Ing strips of what was once Berdans Ins sharpshooters distinguished flag are Inscribed the names of 25 notable engagements en-gagements the most important of the war and the achievements of that celebrated body of men if collected in one volume would read like a romance of old In another direction was a square of white silk heavily fringed with deep I gold bullion The silk retained little of its former luster or beauty being I faded mildewed and torn The fringe was rusty and ragged and on the ding surface but two figures were left by I which It could be identified I had been the banner of the famous New York Sixtyninth and had frequently waved at the head of the steady ranks I of the Irish Legion who followed the gallant Corcoran through the fortunes of many a hotly contested field Here was the bloodstained guidon of the Sixth regiment Kentucky cavalry captured September 21 1863 by Major General Wheeler and beside a United States flag of the Fifteenth Massachusetts Massa-chusetts captured by O E NIckerson private company D Third Georgia regiment June 22 1864 Petersburg Va The battle flags o the Fifth and Sixth Alabama regiments reposed I side by side with Florida and In fact all of the states of the confederacy were I well represented In many Instances j I the confederate flags bore legands and devices A white silk banner torn and limp that once had floated in front of an Alabama regiment had traced on the faded wormeaten surface We light for our homes our wives and our children I Is said that an enthusiastic enthusias-tic Alabamian offered 5600 for that banner On all the confederate flags In the four corners of the cross were printed In black and gold letters the names of the battles through which they had been borne and much more attention to details was manifested by the southerners than their opponents The battle flag of the Eleventh Alabama Ala-bama was about four feet square red I ground with blue stripes about four Inches wide running diagonally across It from corner to corner On these stripes were 12 white stars I was badly torn and blood stained I had been captured by the Fiftyseventh New York Richardsons division Sumners corps at the battle of Antletam September 17 1S62 In one corner stood a magnificent large dark blue silk flag with handsome hand-some center painted representing two females one holding a pod of unripe cotton and the other a staff and liberty cap In her left hand and a scroll on which was Inscribed The Constitution Constitu-tion of North Carolina In her right hand Below Fourth regiment North Carolina volunteers This flag was captured by the Fifth New Hampshire at Antletam Color Corporal George Netterson seized the colors and brought them off although badly 1 wounded i The same regiment shot down the color bearers of battle flags of other regiments opposed to them But to attempt a description of the prominent banners to the exclusion of the many would Involve a volume and from the dingy building on Seventeenth street we will pass to the spacious grounds and pleasant surroundings of Annapolis j < p Here are exhibited the ensign and I pennant used by the proud Dacres on his crack frigate Guerrlere captured from the French In 1806 tind mounting I 49 guns while Hull In Old Ironsides S ranged alongside and engaged the bold engge Briton yardarm and yardarm The astonished Englishman was whipped in I just 30 minutes but it took considerable more than that time for Dacres to realize real-ize fuCCy the situation There is also die layed an English royal standard catxured at York Toronto Canada April 27 1813 when that place was taken by the squadron under Commodore j I Isaac Chuuncey and a force of trocos j i under General Pike This is the onlv i rccai standard remaining a a trc ny i I In the hands of the United States and IIs I a Stir offset for the scars and stripes prominently displayed on the walls of the historic London tower I Is a beautifully embroidered but baiJe scarred las upon whose folds the legend le-gend Fourth United Sates Infantry is worked Major William H Powell of the army desiring to trace the history his-tory of this flag thus relates his experience ence enceI I sent many a weary hour search ing among dusy official records uro1 I gleaned from them the following authentic au-thentic account of the battle of TiDe canoe and the details of the surrender of General Hull at Detroit Under the act of congress approved April 12 1SOS the Fourth United States ae Infantry was reorganized and the com ranies recruited in the New England tae The noWe old city of Boston evidently fathered the regiment for hi regment the year 1809 a number of prominent ladCes of that city made embroidered and presented to the regiment the flag which now occupies a place among tie trophies of Great Britain The regular troops were marched Into a field ad jolnCnir the fort where arms were stacked and British saeke a < guard Immediate imme-diate placed over them Then the cal I ors of the Fcurth infantry which had been victoriously borne from the At lantic to the Mississippi and thence to the lakes and fresh from the battle of Marjrarago or Brownstone were brousiht out by the adjutant and while tears streamed down the cheels of of fitters and men were delivered Into the hands of a British officer and subsequently subse-quently I sent to England where they i have been kept for 75 years In an oldfashioned sleepy Spanish town celebrated only for Its one large cathedral I once viewed upon the walls of the edifice an English Union Jack and what struck me as peculiar an Iron grating was used evidently for the bet ter protection of the flag Upon Inquir ing the following facts were elicited The Jack had once floated from the te saanker gaff of an English sloouof war which during one of the European wars in which England and whic Spain were ranged on ounosite sides the rrniispr on M1ipr I ventured too close in shore got into the breakers and with the crew mostly II drowned fell an easy prey to the Span ish forces The fag was ostentatiously displayed on the walls of the cathedral and some years afterwards an English frigate happening Into the harbor lsh old quartermaster and a brother tar wandered Into the sacred edifice under I the tour of a guide Jack spied the i Union Jack the polite native told him I how It had been captured and the two sailors exchansed a rapid glance and the next moment the astonished guide momen atonishe found himself on his beam ends while I the sailors who couM scarcely restrain their Indignation IndlgaUon at A bloody Dago having an Eng flag had leap doer d-oer the wall and effected their retreat to the frigate when the flag was handed hand-ed over to the astonished commander The town authorities made a formal demand for the return of the relic which was compiled with on the part of the commander but no doubt with manv an inward qualm of conscience and silent commendation of Jacks sient tommendatlon Jaks action ac-tion and manner of rescuing the precious preci-ous piece of bunting But with its res toration on the wall effectual tororon wal efectual means to prevent a recurrence of the recrrenc catastrophe catas-trophe were taken by the church authorities au-thorities But to return to the flag room at Annapolis where many interesting relics rel-ics and flags connected with the moifr Stirring and gallant achievements ot our navy abound on every side but lack of space will only pent of iOta merest mention I The ensign of the English frigate Macedonian captured by the gallant Decatur In the frigate United States I Is an Interesting trophy The prize was taken Into New York and put into the service being finally broken up at Norfolk In 1835 Her original figurehead figure-head Is preserved at the Naval academy There Is a tradition that the first shot from the United States knocked the bal from beneath the paw of a wooden lion which stood on the Macedonians quarterdeck The tricolor tri-color of France which once floated over the frigate Insurgente and was lowered I before the guns of the frigate Constellation Constel-lation occupies a prominent place as I well as the ensign of England taken by Captain Stewart from the Cyani I in I his famous triangular duel with that vessel and Levant in the frigate Constitution Con-stitution In this memoorable engagement engage-ment Old Ironsides was so skillfully handled by her commander as to escape after an engagement of 40 minutes The fight occurred on the 20th of February 1815 off Madena I Perrys battle flag hoisted at > the masthead of the Lawrence as a signal j for action is also displayed The flag was originally blue and i bore in white letters Dont Give Up the Ship the last words of Captain James Lawrence after whom the flagshin I was named who had been mortally wounded In the action between the Chesapeake and Shannon When I Perry shifted from the Lawrence to i the Niagara during the engagement he carried this flag with him and hoisted I upon the latter vessel The ensign of the Kearsarge which floated from her masthead in her fight I with the Alabama finds a resting place at the academy as well as the flag used by Admiral Farragut on his last official duty I was on board the Tallapoosa January 1S70 at the obsequies of George Peabody at Port land Me Looking up at this flag asa as-a salute was fired at Portsmouth N H In his honor the admiral remarked I I would be well if I died now in harness Te ensign of the Java another trophy tro-phy won from an English frigate by Old Ironsides under BainbrIdge together to-gether with one from the English sloopofwar Penguin the ensign of I the English brigofwar Boxer schooner Highflyer and numerous other flags captured from Great Britain all find a place at the Naval academy I with interesting Incidents connected with each The trophies bear witness to the prowess and valor I of the United att dn States navy and are eloquent proofs I that her boast of Brltania ruling the I waves must be modified when Yankee frigates take a hand In the game I There are flags from Mexico Corea China and Algiers all won as trophies by American seamen from fOemen on I the seas and young men In course of naval training can scarcely gaze upon the navy relics representing the most I Important events in Imporant our naval history without experiencing n glow of enthusiasm enthusi-asm and patriotic ardor with a desire to emulate the examples of the gal lant heroes who hove gone before I The Hags thus preserved are of ines timable value In conveying to the young and ardent officer lessons of devotion to country coupled with the highest sentiments of patriotism As relics of valor closely Interwoven with the most inspiring portion of the countrys history they should to the last shred of bunting be carefully preserve pre-serve and faithfully Times looked after o r > o |