Controversy Regarding Capture of the 26th Alabama's Flag on July 1

Tom Elmore

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One of the enduring mysteries arising from the fight on Oak Ridge on the morning of July 1 involves the capture of a flag, since confirmed to have belonged to the 26th Alabama, by the 88th Pennsylvania. It is a mystery because the evidence (backed by historians) suggests the 88th Pennsylvania never directly faced off against the 26th Alabama, although some folks have done contortions to place the 26th near Iverson. I will present some pertinent sources, then offer two alternative explanations.

All of the available sources taken together point to three Confederate flags being captured by John Robinson's division on July 1, that of the 20th and 23th North Carolina from Iverson's brigade, and the 26th Alabama from O'Neal's brigade. The 97th New York took the colors of the 20th North Carolina, while the 88th Pennsylvania took the remaining two.

- In an August 2, 1863 letter by George E. Wagner, 88 PA, Wagner wrote: "Captured the colors of the 23rd North Carolina and 16th Alabama regiments. (This same information appears in Bates' History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 3:71, and by Wagner again in an address that he delivered at the monument's dedication in 1889.)

- Wagner incorrectly identified the Alabama regiment as the 16th, which was not at Gettysburg, but Confederate flag expert Greg Biggs, among others, have shown that it actually belonged to the 26th Alabama. Historian Tod L. Molesworth put the history on his site: "In April 20, 1863, Colonel Edward Asbury O'Neal, 26th Alabama Infantry, forwarded the regiment's old battle flag to the Governor of Alabama stating 'The government having issued to this Regiment a new flag, we respectfully ask that the old one may be deposited in the Archives of the State.' Their new flag was captured at Gettysburg on July 1." (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~fdmoore/26th Alabama.htm)

- John D. Vautier of the 88th Pennsylvania, in an article appearing in the Philadelphia Weekly Times, 31 July 1886, wrote: Took two flags, one of them, the 23rd North Carolina, being captured by Capt. Richards and Sgt. Gilligan in a hand-to-hand contest with the color guard. (Vautier curiously omits mention of how the other, 26th Alabama's flag, was taken.) However, in his regimental history, which was published in 1894, Vautier wrote, "Lieutenant Levan took one, which, in an impromptu speech, he presented to General Robinson, and Sergeant Gilligan, along with many others, capturing the other one." The implication is that Lieutenant Levan turned over the flag of the 26th Alabama while the battle was in progress.

- Isaac Hall of the 97th New York, in an article appearing in the National Tribune, June 26, 1884, wrote: "One flag (20 NC) was captured by Sgt. Sylvester Riley of Company C; the other was taken by a man of the other regiment on our left." (The 11th Pennsylvania was on their left, but did not report a flag being taken. The 88th Pennsylvania was on their right. Hall makes no mention of a second flag being taken by the 88th Pennsylvania at this time.)

- However, George A. Hussey, in his History of the Ninth Regiment N.Y.S.M. (83rd New York), published in 1889 wrote: "In the charge against Iverson three battle flags were brought in."

- Bourne Spooner of Company D, 13th Massachusetts, wrote his reminiscences that recently appeared in an article by Bradley M. Forbush, The Gettysburg Magazine, issue 55, p. 20: “Some of the rebs tried to escape when the charge was made, and one fellow was bearing off a Confederate flag when Major Gould raised the attention of the men to him, and he at once fell, probably pierced by many bullets.” (The charge Spooner is referring to was made late in the day against some of O'Neal's men occupying a low spot in the Mummasburg Road, which came after the 88th Pennsylvania, with the rest of Baxter's brigade, had been relieved and moved south to near the railroad cut. I figure the flag mentioned by Spooner was either that of the 26th Alabama or possibly the 6th Alabama. If the former, was it somehow missed and left behind on the field?)

- My last question touches on one possible explanation that is backed up by something that Isaac Hall wrote to Gettysburg historian Bachelder in a letter dated August 15, 1884: “I remember distinctly after the battle there was a report that one of the 88th boys had found a Confederate flag in the grass near that ditch, after Lee’s retreat.” (Bachelder Papers, 3:1062) (Hall is referring to the depression where Iverson's men fell, but perhaps it could have been in the field just north of the Mummasburg Road? It would not be the first time that someone claimed credit for "capturing" a flag that was simply lying abandoned out in a field. Following the battle, it was not uncommon for slightly wounded or paroled soldiers to visit locations where their units had fought.)

- The other explanation is more charitable to the 88th Pennsylvania, but perhaps less likely. When initially deployed facing the Mummasburg Road, skirmishers from that regiment were sent forward and clashed with O'Neal's men in their first advance. Possibly some of these skirmishers did not rejoin their regiment when it moved west to confront Iverson, but rather fought independently against O'Neal, and that's how they came to acquire the colors of the 26th Alabama.
 
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