‘Shattered old flag’ returns home

by James Breig

By James Breig

The continuing 150^th anniversary of the four-year Civil War provides an opportunity to focus on regimental flags – and what happened to them. They were carried by troops into battle to mark where their unit was located, to see where they were moving and to provide a rallying point.

In a touching letter, penned on May 20, 1863, one officer paid tribute to a flag of the 14^th Indiana Volunteers. Second Lieutenant John A. Stannis of Company B wrote home to a woman to explain why he was returning the flag. She was among women from five Hoosier towns, including Vincennes, who had presented the flag to the regiment.

“I send you to-day, by Express, our time-worn and bullet-worn flag,” Stannis wrote. “We part with it reluctantly, for it has been with us through sunshine and shadow, has waved over us, while we lay quietly in camp, and while engaged in battle with the enemies of our country.”

He described the flag as “no longer serviceable in the field” because it was “so completely riddled with bullets, and torn by service….We deem it right that it should be returned to those who so kindly presented it to us, when we enlisted in the service of our country.”

Looking back over his unit’s history, Stannis affirmed that “the same feeling that animated us when we received the flag from your hands still remains. Time, hardships, and the loss of many of our brave comrades have only made us more determined to uphold that flag, surrounded as it is by so many hallowed memories, and dear to the heart of every true American.”

The flag, he explained, had been taken into battle “and received a full charge of ‘grape’ [multiple metal balls fired from a cannon] in the late battle of Chancellorsville, rendering it useless to us. We return the shattered old flag of ‘Company B’ to the Ladies of Vincennes and leave it with them to do as they think proper with it.”

Stannis asked the women to “hold it with reverence, while they bear in mind that of the one hundred and four true men who started out under that flag, but thirty-eight are now left with us, and eleven of those are wounded and in hospital, or broken down with the severe service of an active campaign.”

Quoting from “Hamlet,” the lieutenant closed with the hope that “even if we are all called to ‘that bourne whence no traveller e’er returns,’ you may live to see the ‘Old Flag’ triumphant.”