Flag talk 150 years ago
In May 1864, 150 years ago, President Lincoln was still immersed in the Civil War. Although the key victories of Gettysburg and Vicksburg had passed, a full year of the conflict still lay ahead. That month was also a time of flags for the Great Emancipator.
In mid-May, supporters of the president gathered to promote his election for a second term. One of them was Green Clay Smith, who served as a congressman from Kentucky, led troops as a major general, became governor of Montana and was ordained a Baptist minister.
A newspaper reported in May 1864 that some people “might think it strange that he, a Kentuckian, should [speak for the Union], but he was speaking from love of country….His heart came out with all the feeling of affection and kindness that was possible for many an humble soul now oppressed [in the South] in whose breasts is but one sentiment, that of love for country, and one desire, that the old flag come again and rescue them from Southern Tyranny.”
That same month, a Union soldier named Thomas Wolfe Jr. wrote to his father in England about life in the service. “I am now going right into battle,” he said, “and I pray God that he will be with me and guide me and if it is his will that I should die, I feel that I shall go to the bright world above where there is peace forever.”
Tom, who had left England, sailed to Canada and crossed the U.S. border to join the Army, also shared with his dad these lyrics: “Hurrah Boys Hurrah/Down with the traitor/Up with the stars/for we will rally/‘round the flag boys.”
He continued, “Father, I love this old flag. I would fight to uphold it till the last drop of blood in me was shed. I have…seen the wounded and dying….And when agony and pain have discouraged them, if they can but see that starry banner once more, it brings their spirits up.”
Shortly after writing his dad, Tom was captured and placed in Libby Prison in Richmond. His father pled with Lincoln to find a way to free his POW child who loved Old Glory.
“If our boy cannot be exchanged,” Wolfe Sr. wrote, “if we could hear that he was well cared for and was still alive it would do us good and calm a dear mother’s troubled mind.”