The Flag of the Gate City Guard

During the desperate retreat of the First Georgia from Laurel Hill, the flags borne by several companies of the regiment were lost.  One of those banners was the flag of the Gate City Guard, lovingly sewn and presented by the ladies of Atlanta to the company before their departure in early 1861.  The wagon carrying the flag was wrecked by sliding into a ravine during the muddy slog over Pheasant Mountain, and the banner was retrieved by pursuing Federal troops.  At some point after the war it was returned to Gate City Guards in Atlanta.  It now resides in the collection of the Atlanta History Center, and can be viewed here.

The story of how the flag was returned to the Gate City Guard has been obscured in history.  Quite by accident, I recently came across an article from the May 29, 1901, edition of the Mansfield Ohio News, which describes in detail the transfer of the flag from a veteran in that city to the old company.  

LONG LOST BATTLE FLAG
RETURNED

TO SURVIVING SOUTHERN
SOLDIERS.

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A Silken Banner Restored to
an Atlantic Company by

George L. Emminger.

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The following story from recent issues of the Atlanta Journal is not only appropriate to the Memorial day anniversary as seeking to show the passage of the old-time sectional hate and prejudice, but will have special interest to the old soldiers and to Mansfield people in general on account of the fact that George L. Emminger, who returned the southern banner, was, until recent years, a resident of this city.

When the old Gate City Guard went to war in the stirring times of ’61, they carried a beautiful flag presented to the company by the ladies of Atlanta, through Miss Henlieter, daughter of the late C. R. Hanlieter, editor and publisher of the Southern Confederacy.  The flag, after a time, went to the enemy, and all trace of it was lost.  Now, after nearly forty years, the scarred flag has been found, and will be restored to the Gate City Guard organization, which is still maintained.

Yesterday Mr. H. H. Cabiness received a letter from Mr. George L. Emminger, of Toledo, O., to whom the organization is indebted for the return of the flag.

Mr. Emminger wrote that an old lady of his acquaintance, some time before her death, gave to his son the staff and remnants of a regimental flag captured by her brother, at what battle he did not remember.  From the remaining inscription he saw that it had been presented by the ladies of Atlanta to the Gate City Guard.

“I do not know if there are any of the members of this organization yet able to answer “roll-call” in your city or section,” said Mr. Emminger, “but if so, they would like a return to the memories of the stirring times of ’61 and ’62 by a sight of that which led them.  They can have it by the mere expression of the desire.”

Mr. Emminger stated that there was a large portion of the silk gone, but enough is left to recognize it by.

In reply to the letter of Mr. Emminger, Mr. Cabiness stated that the company would joyfully receive the flag and would (unreadable) much pleasure in associating his name with the incident of its return.  He was asked to express the flag at the expense of the company to Mr. Harry Krouse.

Mr. Krouse was a member of the Gate City Guard,
the company which left Atlanta in April, 1861, belonging to the First Georgia
regiment of volunteers.  Mr. Cabiness had three brothers in the regiment, one a captain from Dahlonega, another a lieutenant of a company from Forsyth, and still another one who left college to join the Forsyth company.  After a little service in Pensacola, Fla., this company was sent to northwest Virginia and encountered McClellan’s forces.  The First Georgia regiment, together with the other Confederate troops, retreated from a position called Laurel Hill in crossing Cheat river.  It was here a battle was fought and the flag
was lost. 

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THE BANNER RESTORED.

Last night, in their armory, the Gate City Guard received the battle-scarred banner that waved over the company when the cause of Confederacy called southern troops to the field of chivalrous valor.  It was the same flag that Atlanta ladies made with their fair hands when fathers, brothers and sweethearts enlisted for the cause in ’61.  It differed from that emblem presented to the company more than thirty years ago only through its rent and ragged aspect, eloquent evidence of the fierce encounters which befell those who followed it in battle.

The members of the old Guard were out in force to see the flag come home.  Men were present who saw the banner presented to the company by the ladies who made it.  They saw it later as it rolled down the steep side of Cheat mountain, in Virginia, when the gray clad boys were running from the Yankees, and it was the last glimpse of the flag they had until they looked
on its folds last night.

The entire membership of the active Guard was present.  Governor Candler and his staff were present, and there were members of the Confederate Veterans, Sons of Veterans, Daughters of the Confederacy and members of the Ladies’ Memorial Association.  The spacious hall of the
armory was filled with the infantrymen and their friends.

The flag was returned to the company through H. H. Cabiness, who learned of its existence from a personal friend in Toledo, O.  The Ohio gentleman was George Emminger, who wrote to Mr. Cabiness, stating that the flag was in his possession.  Through Mr. Cabiness’ efforts the flag was sent to Atlanta to be returned to its original owners.

SEVERAL SPEECHES MADE.

Governor Candler made the introductory remarks to the presentation exercises last night.  He extolled the bravery of Confederate soldiers in general and the members of the Gate City Guard in particular.

Mr. Cabiness requested F. H. Richardson to make the presentation speech.  Mr. Richardson referred in the happy memory of his childhood, of the departure of the Gate City Guard to join the Confederate army, and of how firmly their gallant appearance (unreadable) his faith in the invincibility of the southern cause.  He then paid a tribute to their record both in war and the work of the righteous reconstruction of the south.  Speaking of the tattered
battleflag he was to present to Captain O’Neill in behalf of his company, he
rejoiced in the fact that it had never been the flag of oppression or a flag
that represented anything but the highest courage of men, the noblest virtues
of women and the sweetest hopes of both.  In this connection he deplored the departure of our government from the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the constitution of the United States.  He condemned the drift towards imperialism and militarism and predicted that there will be a return to those ideas of civic liberty and justice on all men which was never so nobly illustrated as they were to the men of the south who constituted the grandest army that ever stepped on God’s (unreadable), in which there were no better or more heroic soldiers than the Gate City Guard. 

THE FLAG ACCEPTED.

Captain James F. O’Neill received the flag for the company in an eloquent speech.  His sentiments went straight to the hearts of the assembly, and his speech was considered by the entire audience as one of the best that has ever been made in Atlanta on a similar occasion.

Harry Krouse, who was a member of the company during the war, and who followed the flag from the time it was presented to the company until it was lost on the retreat at Cheat mountain, gave a history of the organization.  It was both interesting and eloquent, and the audience was greatly entertained by the recital of the narrative. 

MR. CARBANISS SPEAKS.

Governor Candler then called on Mr. Cabaniss for a speech.  Mr. Cabaniss, in the center of his remarks, said: 

Mr. Cabaniss spoke briefly and said that during frequent visits to the cities of the south, northwest and west, it had been his good fortune to meet a large number of representative people of those sections.  He had not found any trace of the bitterness which had formerly existed toward the people of the south; that the good people there not only entertained the kindest, feelings toward the people of the south, but manifested such friendship, frequently in a very substantial manner.

One of the gentlemen he had met was a prominent citizen of the state of Ohio, George Emminger, who in coming into possession of this battle-scarred and time-worn flag. It was his first impulse to send it to its proper owner.  For this kindly act I honor him.

The men who fought under this flag were heroes and those who opposed them were heroes.  It was American against American from 1861 to 1865, and the great destructiveness of the battles waged proved that each side had brave, loyal and unconquerable soldiers.

I thing [sic] this flag, and all other Confederate flags should be furled, never to be unfolded upon the battlefield.  They are mementos, peerless relics, to be guarded with sacred care and undying love.

But all other American battles must be fought
under the our American flag, the Stars and Stripes.  It is our flag as much as anybody’s, and of it the late Senator Hill said:

“Southern breezes kiss it; southern skies reflect it; southern sons will fight for it, and southern heroes will die for it.”

We drop a tear as we consider the past, but we must look to the future and its reunited union, under a restored flag, as one people we will do our part in maintaining a common country in its proud position as the greatest nation in the world and aid it with all our strength in pressing forward to the beauty and majesty of its missions.

OTHER SHORT TALKS.

Colonel Robert J. Lowry, Colonel Andrew J. West, Captain T. H. Jones, a Confederate veteran who came to Atlanta several years ago from Kentucky, and Captain W. L. Ezzard, who commanded the company during the war, made short speeches.

Refreshments were served during the evening.  As the active Guard were marching to the upper room with the old flag in their midst, a (unreadable) moment occurred.

A lady who was standing near the door as the line of uniformed soldiers marched through, grasped the folds of the tattered flag and imprinted a kiss on it.  She was one of the ladies who made the flag and presented it to the company in 1861.  The incident was witnessed by the entire assembly and there were many in the crowd who could not restrain tears at the spectacle of extreme love and devotion to the lost cause and the flag by which it was represented last night.

The Gate City Guard will keep the flag in their archives.  It is  (unreadable) as one of the most valuable relics in the possession of the command.

Happy Memorial Day

The Martin family wishes you and yours a very safe and enjoyable Memorial Day Holiday.  Our thanks and prayers go out to all those in uniform serviing their country, whether here at home or on far distant seas and fields.
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I would like once again to offer my article on the origins of Memorial Day.  It can be read here.

Flag of the Washington Rifles

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in conference assembled, That the Secretary of War be, and he is hereby, authorized to deliver to the proper authorities of the respective States in which the regiments which bore these colors were organized certain Union and Confederate battle flags now in the custody of the War Department for such final disposition as the aforesaid proper authorities may determine.

This act, passed by the United States Congress in 1905, and signed by President Theodore Roosevelt, returned flags carried by Confederate troops to the Southern States. Among these banners was the First National pattern flag of the Washington Rifles, Company “E” of the First Georgia Volunteer Infantry. The colors were in poor condition, the fabric tattered and torn.

In 1861, forty-four years earlier, the banner’s silk shone brightly, and its canton proudly displayed the painted Georgia state coat of arms. The lovingly sown flag was presented to the Washington Rifles as they prepared to depart for Camp Oglethorpe in Macon. The scene was described in the April 3 edition of the Sandersville Central Georgian:

On Monday previous to their departure, the ladies of Sandersville, with their usually liberality and promptness, prepared a sumptuous dinner in the Court House for the benefit of the Rifles, but of which all were invited to partake. We were not present, but we have heard but one opinion expressed in regard to the manner in which the affair was conducted, and that one is highly creditable to the fair donors. The ladies of our town know how to get up these things, and in the present instance they more than excelled any former public occasion amongst us. After all who chose had partaken of the dinner, an abundance for several days’ subsistence was packed away to be carried with the company. The ladies during the day presented the company with a handsome flag of the Confederate States. Sustained by the hand, and encouraged by the smiles of fair woman, what would not man dare—what would he not achieve?

Business also prevented our hearing the address delivered by Col. J. S. Hook before the company and the public on this occasion. We are told, however, that it was the most felicitous and appropriate; that in patriotic and soul-stirring words he depicted the honor and glory of a life devoted to the defence of one’s country, and said, that while he was conscious it was unnecessary to so speak in this instance, he would exhort them never to permit the flag confided to their keeping by the angel band of women to be tarnished by one unpatriotic act, or soiled by the hand of a foe. The ceremonies were highly interesting, and very creditable to all engaged.

During the retreat of General Robert S. Garnett’s Army of the Northwest from Laurel Hill in July of 1861, many of the flags belonging to the various companies of the First Georgia were stored in wagons. Panicked teamsters jettisoned equipment from entangled wagons as the column worked its way through the Allegheny Mountains, and many wagons were simply abandoned when they became stuck. One such wagon was left behind at a river crossing just north of Kalers Ford, where Colonel Ramsey fought a rearguard action against pursuing Union troops, and where six companies were cut off from the army and forced to wander lost in the trackless wilderness. This wagon contained the banner of the Washington Rifles. As Federal troops crossed the river in pursuit of the Confederates, a soldier of the Ninth Indiana found the Rifles’ colors in the wagon. Climbing atop the wagon, he unfurled the colors and waved it, either to urge on his comrades, or possibly just to show off what he had discovered. The banner was sent north, where it remained in the War Department’s collection of captured flags. It was returned to Georgia as one of the returned battleflags.

The image at the top of this column is from a brochure titled “The Returned Battle Flags,” which was given as a souvenir during the United Confederate Veterans Reunion held in Louisville, Kentucky, in June of 1905. It shows the Washington Rifles flag as it looked when returned to Georgia. The banner, made of silk, continued to deteriorate, but was restored by conservators in recent years. The banner is now part of the collection of the Georgia Capitol Museum in Atlanta. The restored flag can be viewed here.

October 3, 1861

Shortly after midnight, Union General Joseph Reynolds, at the head of nearly 5,000 troops and thirteen pieces of artillery, began his march down from Cheat Summit Fort.  His target, Confederate Camp Bartow, under the command of General Henry R. Jackson, which was located along the banks of the Greenbrier River near an old stage tavern known as Travelers Repose. 

Near dawn, Reynold's skirmishers struck a Confederate picket line under the command of Colonel James N. Ramsey of the First Georgia.  The pickets held off four separate attacks, but when the Federals brought up artillery, Ramsey ordered the troops to withdraw.  Ramsey himself was cut off from his troops as the action swirled around him.

Colonel Edward Johnson of the Twelfth Georgia, leading a detachment of about 100 men cobbled together from his regiment and the First Georgia, advanced from the fortifications to assist Ramsey's pickets.  Johnson was able to hold up the Federal advance for almost an hour, giving the troops in the breastworks time to bolt their breakfast and form up.  Finally giving way, Johnson's men streamed back toward the camp.  It was at this time that Private David Young of the Gate City Guards, the soldier mentioned in this blog's masthead, was killed.  While Johnson conducted his delaying action, Jackson deployed his troops.  The First Georgia was placed on the far right flank of Jackson's line.  "Your regiment have the post of danger," Jackson told Major George H. Thompson of the First.

The Union commander now ordered up his artillery, which went into battery just eight hundred yards in front of Jackson's redoubts.  During the next four hours, a titanic artillery duel continued between the two sides, with the thunder of the cannon echoing across the valley.  Reynolds also tried advancing troops toward each of the Rebel's flanks, but was repulsed each time.  Finally, having made no progress against the Confederate entrenchments, and observing reinforcements coming up behind Jackson, Reynolds broke off the attack and retreated back to Cheat Summit Fort. 

The Confederates celebrated their defensive victory.  After the battle, a soldier from the Quitman Guards (Company K of the First), out looking for souvenirs on the battlefield, found the flag of the 7th Indiana Regiment leaning against a tree.  The banner was presented to General Jackson and forwarded to Richmond as a trophy of the First Georgia. 

July 12, 1861

The road to Beverly is blockaded, stopping the Army of the Northwest’s retreat south. General Garnett receives a report that Federal troops are in Beverly (a mistake). With few choices left to him, Garnett decides to reverse direction and push north, hoping to reach the western tip of Maryland and then to turn back south toward Monterey, Virginia. The army does an about-face, with the First Georgia now in the rear guard. As rain continues to pour down, the troops struggle through knee-deep mud along narrow mountain paths. Much equipment is jettisoned from the wagons to lighten the load. Some of the wagons literally slide off the trail and crash down in ravines below. The Southern Guard and the Gate City Guards, Companies B and F, lose their company flags this way. By late that evening, the army reaches Kalers Ford on the Shavers Fork River, where the exhausted troops go into bivouac.

Back at Laurel Hill, Union General Thomas Morris dispatches three infantry regiments and two artillery pieces, under the command of Captain Henry W. Benham, in pursuit of the Confederates.

More Flags

The Walker Light Infantry, which would become Company “I” of the First Georgia, was constituted in early 1861 by combining two companies of so-called “minute men” in Augusta. The company was commanded by Captain Samuel H. Crump, and was issued “Mississippi” style rifles, .54 caliber. On March 23, 1861, the company received a new banner. The presentation was described in the Augusta Daily Constitutionalist the following day:

“The Walker Light Infantry, Capt. S. H. Crump, paraded yesterday afternoon. At four o’clock, the company marched to the City Hall, where a beautiful banner, “the work of fair hands,” was presented to them. JOHN B. WEEMS, of the Southern Republic, made the presentation, accompanying it with some patriotic and appropriate remarks.

Lieut. W. H. WHEELER, of the Walker Light Infantry, made the response in a very neat and totally appropriate little speech.

A detachment of the Washington Artillery fired a salute of seven guns on the river bank for the flag. The juvenile company, the Richmond Guards, who were on the balcony of the City Hall during the presentation, gave the banner three cheers.

The [field] of white ground, having the coat of arms of Georgia on one side, with the motto: “Dear our country; our liberty dearer.” On the other side is an uplifted arm grasping a sword. The flag is trimmed with a neat fringe, and is altogether creditable to the fair donors whose work it is; and they have entrusted it to worthy hands.

After the presentation, the company paraded for some time in Broad Street.”

The flag’s description is a little vague, not giving the precise layout of the state coat of arms and words. I’ve come up with a couple of variations to show what it may have looked like:

The obverse may have looked something like this:

Flag of the Southern Guard

On Tuesday, February 5, 1861, an overflow crowd jammed into Temperance Hall in Columbus, Georgia, eager to witness a special ceremony. That evening Company “D” of Columbus’s Southern Guard was presented with a brand-new flag, sewn by Mrs. W. J. McAlister and other ladies in her family. The banner was described in an article in the Columbus Weekly Times:


“It was made of rich white silk doubled, and elaborately executed in the handsomest manner. The arms of the Republic of Georgia was painted on one side, beneath the arch of which were the words in gold: “Cotton is King.”

The sentinel usually seen on the Georgia Coat of Arms was moved to the left side, and in his place was positioned a slave seated on a bale of cotton. The article continued:

Above the arch was the Latin quotation, “Non nobis solum sed patrie et amicie”—“Not for ourselves alone, but country and friends.” On the reverse in a semi-circle form were the words “Southern Guard” in gilt letters, with a large “D” beneath; the whole surrounded by wreaths of acorns, and the cotton plant with its bolls in all stages of growth—The banner was trimmed with rich fringe about three inches deep.”

The banner was received on behalf of the company by Lieutenant James N. Ramsey. Three months later, the Southern Guard became Company B of the First Georgia Volunteer Infantry, and Ramsey was elected as the regiment’s colonel.

During the Army of the Northwest’s retreat from Laurel Hill on July 13, 1861, several company flags were stowed in wagons as the army struggled to escape their Union pursuers in the pouring rain and bottomless mud. As the wagons slowly made their way along a narrow trace along the side of Pheasant Mountain, several slid off the side, crashing down into the ravine below. The wagon carrying the Southern Guards’ flag was one meeting this fate. Federal troops picking through the wreckage came across the banner, along with that of the Gate City Guards. Further along, the standard of the Washington Rifles was found in a wagon abandoned at a river crossing below Kalers Ford. It is uncertain exactly where the flags were conveyed from there, but the Southern Guard’s banner was eventually displayed with a collection of other captured banner. The illustration above is from the March 15, 1862 edition of the New York Illustrated News, which described this collection of Rebel flags.

Sadly, though many of the flags captured in Northwestern Virginia were returned to Georgia (the banner of the Gate City Guards is held by the Atlanta History Center, and the Washington Rifles flag is in the collection of the Georgia Capitol Museum in Atlanta), no trace of the Southern Guard’s standard has survived. Using the newspaper and other descriptions, along with the above illustration, I have created what I believe is a close approximation of the banner:

And the obverse:

Maybe someday this beautiful flag will be discovered and restored to the state of Georgia.

(Thanks to Greg Biggs for the image from the New York Illustrated News)

Flags of the First Georgia

When the various companies which would make up the First Georgia Infantry arrived in Macon, each one bore with them beautiful flags. As in communities across the South, these banners were most often sewn by groups of local ladies and presented to the troops in elaborate ceremonies. Many (if not most) of these flags were of a pattern mimicking the new national colors, known as the “Stars and Bars”. Today also known as the First National Flag of the Confederacy, the banner contained of a blue canton containing a pattern of stars, and the field consisted of three horizontal wide stripes (“bars”) of two red and one white.*

The first company to arrive at Macon’s Camp Oglethorpe in early April, 1861, was the Quitman Guards of Monroe County. The Guards’ flag, patterned after the First National, was described in an 1883 newspaper article about a regimental reunion of First Georgia veterans:

“The old flag of the Quitman Guards attracted a great deal of attention. It has many a ghastly gash where the vicious bullets split their way through its fleecy folds, but it is yet in a fair state of preservation, and though the white silk fringe with which fair hands decked its borders is stained and torn, its red, white and blue bars and golden stars stirs the memories of the heart and calls up again the dark days of ’61, when the pride of many a home and the idol of many a heart marched away so proudly away, never, alas, to return again, with it waving so gaily above them. I am as strong for fraternization as anybody, but if I am to do so at the expense of the memory of the men who fell under that flag I will have none of it. Thank heaven there are no longer any to say that the men who marched and fought under the stars and bars were not as noble, as brave, and as honest in their convictions as those who fought under the stars and stripes.”

The major difference between the Quitman Guards’ flag and most First National pattern banners is in the canton. Where in most flags the canton meets the seam of the lowest bar, covering the field of the top two bars, in the Guard’s banner the canton comes down just to the top seam of the middle, white bar. This is my rendering of this flag:

The Monroe County Historical Society holds a photograph of Monroe County veterans, a portion of which is at left. In the right background is displayed a First National Flag. During my research I was advised that this was probably the flag of the Fourteenth Georgia, which is now in the collection of the Georgia Capitol Museum in Atlanta, and can be seen here. Confederate flag authority Greg Biggs, who was of great help with I Will Give Them One More Shot, has studied the photo, and agrees that it is most likely the flag of the Quitman Guards. The flag in the photograph quite plainly displays a fringe, and though shows the obverse, there is no shadow or bleed through of lettering from the front side. The flag of the Fourteenth Georgia has the regiment’s name stenciled on the length of the white bar. Also, the canton of the Fourteenth’s flag projects slightly down into the white bar, while the canton of the flag in the veteran’s photograph appears to run even with the top and middle bars’ seams. Lastly, the Fourteenth’s flag shows no evidence of having had a fringe. It is quite possible that both flags were made by the same person or persons.
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*A pet peeve of mine is today’s common habit of calling any Confederate flag the Stars and Bars – most frequently confusing it with the Battle Flag (or Southern Cross) with its St. Andrew’s cross.