Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 March 1882 — The Story of a Battle Flag. [ARTICLE]

The Story of a Battle Flag.

In the sharply contested battle of Cedar Mountain, fought on the 9th of August. 1862, the Twenty-eighth New York Volunteers, after losing nearly half of its officers and men, including its colonel, was captured, together with its regimental flag. The flag bore no name or inscription, but the man who carried it cut a piece out of one corner before it passed out of his possession so that it might be identified. It was never seen again, by any member of the regiment until a few days since. Colonel E. F. Brown, who was lieutenant-colonel of tbe Twenty-eighth New York at the battle of Cedar Mountain, who lost an arm in that action, and who has since the war been a custodian of the piece cut from the flag accidentally discovered the flag itself in this city in a collection of recaptured Union colors found in Richmond when that city was taken in 1865. He at once wrote to the Secretary of War on behalf of the surviving members of the regiment asking that the flag be restored to them. The request was tgranted, and, in pursuance of an order issued yesterday by Adjutant-General Drum the flag was turned over to Colonel Brown, and will be presented to the surviving members of the regiment at their next annual reunion, which will take place in a few weeks.